2016 was a dope year. The prevailing thought on Twitter right now seems to be that 2016 sucked and that the hope is 2017 can’t be any worse. I have two big thoughts on this. First, just because the calendar flips on Sunday doesn’t mean that things change. When you write the date, you should put 2017 at the end, and I’m sure that will take some getting used to, but other than that, nothing changes. The whole ‘new year, new me’ thing might be the most annoying thing in the world, outside of Boston Celtics’ fans that think their team is ready for the big time. Both ways of thinking couldn’t be more far off. The second thought is that 2016 was actually pretty dope. Sure, we unfortunately had quite a few celebrity deaths, but so many positive things came out of 2016.
From the perspective of the Cavs, let’s go back and take a look at everything that happened in 2016, because it was undoubtedly the best year in the history of the franchise.
When the calendar flipped from 2015 to 2016 the Cavs were in really good shape. Sure, they had just lost a Finals rematch in Oakland to the Warriors by six, and then blown out by the Blazers the next night, but the team boasted a record of 21-9 when 2016 started. They won their last two of 2015 against the Suns and Nuggets before 2016 started. Those two wins were the start of an eight-game winning streak that came to an end with a loss in San Antonio. The Cavs were 28-10 when Golden State came to town on January 18. The Warriors absolutely embarrassed the Cavs.
The 34-point loss to Golden State was the worst of the year, and looked to be the low point for the Cavs. With that being said, it was only their 11th loss of the season, so it wasn’t cause for panic, or so we thought. The Cavs seemed to bounce back fine after that loss, winning their next two games in dominating fashion against Brooklyn and the Clippers. This pushed the Cavs’ record to 30-11, good enough for best in the east, but not good enough for Owner Dan Gilbert and General Manager David Griffin. Head Coach David Blatt was relieved of his duties the day after beating the Clippers on national TV. Tyronn Lue was promoted to take over for Blatt. Lue’s promotion was not in an interim role, according to the team he was the guy they wanted leading LeBron and company for the foreseeable future.
We all know how successful that move turned out to be with the Cavs winning the title in June.
Which leads me to another super dope thing in 2016. The Cavs won the NBA Finals. Was there anything even remotely this cool that happened in sports this year? I sure don’t think there was. Everyone knows the story of how it happened, so I won’t tell that one, but it was incredible. Not only did the Cavs give the City of Cleveland its first major pro sports championship since December of 1964, but the Cavs also gave us the ability to make 3-1 jokes (which are still hilarious), peak-petty LeBron, shirtless JR Smith, an incredible parade, one of the greatest sports days ever seen in any city on October 25 (much credit to the Indians for that one, as well), and a Christmas Day classic.
There is so much to break down here, and I’ll go in the order that I listed them.
The 3-1 jokes are great and they haven’t gotten old, and likely never will. The 73-9 Golden State Warriors boasted multiple firsts in their 2016 campaign. They were the first team to ever win 73 games in a season (impressive), had the first player to ever win the league’s MVP award unanimously (impressive), and became the first team to ever have three games to one lead in the NBA Finals and not hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy. The fact that the first two firsts happened and the third first followed it up is jaw-dropping in itself.
There are so many ways to break this down. No one had ever blown a 3-1 lead before. Not teams that had won 50 games, or 60 games, or 72 games. However, the first team to ever win 73 games in a season, blew a 3-1 lead. That alone is mind blowing. Now, add in the fact that Steph Curry was the first to ever win an MVP award unanimously. Michael Jordan had never done this, LeBron James had never done this, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Tim Duncan, no, no, and no. It had never been done before. Pairing those two never done before feats should have made the Warriors’ 3-1 lead safer than a 3-1 lead had ever been before. It may have been but Draymond Green’s suspension paired with Klay Thompson’s notorious ‘Man’s Game’ press conference changed all that.
Due to everything that went along with Golden State blowing their 3-1 lead it has made it unlikely that the jokes will ever get old, not even the Cleveland Indians blowing a 3-1 lead in the World Series can change this, sorry, Draymond.
The Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead in the Finals did bring a LeBron James to surface that many of us knew existed, but had never met. We were introduced to Petty LeBron. If you recall during LeBron’s first stint in Cleveland he had a series of commercials titled “The LeBron’s” which showed us Business Man LeBron, Kid LeBron, Athlete LeBron, and Old Man LeBron. There definitely was a fifth LeBron hiding on set that Nike and LeBron didn’t feel they were ready to unleash to the world, and that was Petty LeBron. Petty LeBron is the guy that walks around with the Kermit the frog hat on before Game 7, wears an edited Kermit hat with Kermit wearing a crown and sipping tea out of the Larry O’Brien trophy all summer following the Finals victory. Simply put, Petty LeBron is the best LeBron. He’s done some incredible things and per Shea Serrano of The Ringer is the pettyweight champion of the world, and I don’t disagree. You can read Shea’s thoughts on Petty LeBron here.
Some other things that Petty LeBron has done include but are not limited to:
- Wearing an undertaker shirt while trailing the Warriors 3-1 at his presser the day before Game 5
- Getting off the plane wearing an Ultimate Warrior t-shirt on June 20th holding the Larry O’Brien trophy
- The picture of The Block near the Warriors locker room on Christmas Day (this may not have been LeBron’s doing, but I’m giving him credit for it)
- The Halloween party with all the decorations trashing the Warriors and their blown 3-1 lead.
It’s not even debatable, Petty LeBron is the best LeBron, and he arrived fully on the scene in 2016.
Soon after the final horn sounded and Cleveland began to celebrate the first ever Cavs championship, Earl Joseph Smith III was without a shirt. This was a recurring theme throughout the summer. The Cavs had a parade? JR Smith was found shirtless. Tyronn Lue got a call from President Obama? The topic was shirtless JR. The Cavs went to Indians’ playoff games together? I’ll let you guess if JR Smith had a shirt on the whole time (he didn’t).
JR Smith went from someone who was a cast-off, and honestly might be out of the NBA if not for his turnaround in Cleveland. 2016 gave us JR Smith the NBA Champion, as well as JR Smith without a shirt. There have actually been shirts of JR Smith’s shirtless torso made for others to wear. That’s how much of a cult hero Shirtless-JR is. There have been a lot of things JR Smith has made the news for, but basking in the glory of a championship without a shirt for months at a time is by far my favorite.
Obviously, at the parade JR Smith was without a shirt almost entirely the entire time. I was credentialed for this event and was able to capture him wearing a shirt for a brief moment, an if I didn’t capture it I’m not sure it would’ve been believed by the public, and understandably so.
The parade seemed to last for 12 hours and was the biggest celebration Cleveland had ever seen. 1.3 million people (allegedly) were in attendance for the festivities and it turned into a day many Clevelanders will never forget. I had a behind the scenes look at most of the parade and rally, which is an experience I’ll never forget. I followed LeBron’s car out onto the street and that’s one of two things I’ll always remember from this day. The other is how deafening of a roar JR got when he approached the street. It was incredible.
The Cavs were relatively quiet, other than the 3-1 jokes and such, until October 25, when they received their rings against the New York Knicks. That night was probably the third loudest Quicken Loans Arena has ever been during a regular season game, behind October 30, 2014 when LeBron returned and this past Christmas against the Warriors (more on that below).
The ring ceremony was extremely well done and something the City of Cleveland had waited forever for. This was the night that finally put the wraps on the 2016 championship run, or so we thought.
The only time The Q was louder than ring night was Christmas Day.
The Cavs and Warriors saw each other face to face for the first time since the Finals, and the atmosphere was electric. Even though the game took place on Christmas Day, nothing about this game had the feeling of December. If you were inside the building and couldn’t feel the bitter chill of a December day in Cleveland, you would have sworn this was June. The Warriors had revenge on their mind, and the Cavs were looking to continue their winning streak against Golden State. The Cavs won in the NBA’s best regular season game of the short season, via a Kyrie Irving game winner, this time over Klay Thompson. The Shot, Part II wasn’t as deadly as the first one, but definitely sent a message to the rest of the NBA.
2016 was incredible for the Cavs and the City of Cleveland, here’s to more of the same in 2017.
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