One of the greatest adversaries LeBron James ever faced in his career is the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors have bested James on numerous occasions, and the few times when LeBron won, he admits they were the better team. According to LeBron, that was even the case during his iconic Finals comeback in 2016, when he led the Cavaliers to their first championship ever.
"Once what happened in Game 5 happened, my guys believed that what I was saying was f**king coming true," said James on Mind the Game. "Y'all get me back to Game 6, we'll get back here for Game 7. There are clips of me in the locker room saying that they're messed up. I just felt like they were the better team. We hit a momentum pop, and there was nothing they could do about it."
The 2016 Finals still rank as LeBron's greatest basketball moment. In a matchup against the 73-9 Warriors, the Cavaliers were major underdogs to win, and nobody thought they had a chance against Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and back-to-back MVP, Stephen Curry.
So when the Cavaliers went down 1-3 in the series, fans were convinced that defeat was inevitable. Up to that point, only a handful of teams in NBA history had overcome such a deficit, and it had never been done in the Finals.
Of course, James knew all along that the series was not yet over. He felt the momentum shift halfway through, but it wasn't until Game 5 that the rest of his team started to believe. In a 15-point blowout, they completely dominated Golden State thanks to 41 points each from LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. After the game, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue even allegedly hid $3,000 in the ceiling of the visitors' locker room in an act of confidence and faith that they would be back to retrieve it.
Back in the Oracle arena for Game 6, fans were certain that the Cavaliers would face defeat, but they somehow managed to avoid it yet again. James scored 41 points again to lead the Cavs to a 14-point win. This time, after the win, he remembers telling his Cavs teammates that the Warriors were 'f**ked up" mentally.
The series finally came to an epic conclusion in Game 7, where the Warriors fought with everything to take the win. In the end, however, they scored just 89 points as LeBron James and Kyrie Irving once again carried Cleveland to victory. After three straight wins, the series was finally over, and it set off a chain reaction that changed NBA history forever.
Looking back, LeBron knows the impossible odds that he and his team were facing. No team had done it before, and yet they were able to pull it off against one of the greatest regular-season squads ever assembled. On paper, the Warriors were better in just about every way than the Cavaliers, and it showed the difference in their win-loss record.
When it mattered, however, the Cavaliers came together in a way the Warriors never did. With other backs against the wall, they refused to give up and kept fighting through their amazing Finals comeback. That series is proof that, sometimes, chemistry and momentum can determine a series just as much as talent or depth. What the Cavaliers lacked in roster power, they made up for with a style of play that brought out the best in everyone.
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