Once the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship this weekend, word got out on their secret motivation throughout the playoffs: a puzzle that the team gradually assembled, adding one piece for each of their 16 playoff wins until the final product depicted the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Each player, along with head coach Tyronn Lue, got to add one piece, and the first 12 wins came without much trouble. The last four against the Warriors were harder to come by, but they did, and the puzzle was eventually completed.
You can now see the whole thing, thanks to — what else? — Richard Jefferson’s Snapchat:
Richard Jefferson snapchat does not disappoint – here's the 16-piece puzzle the team built with every playoff win pic.twitter.com/HkpMbc18en
— Michele Steele (@MicheleSteele) June 21, 2016
The biggest piece, which was the final addition after Sunday’s title-clinching Game 7 win over the Warriors, is right in the center of the basketball, and it’s in the shape of the state of Ohio.
No one knows what’s going to happen to the puzzle now that it’s finished, but if I were a player on the team, I’d almost be more interested in having that than I would the trophy, considering it was something tangible throughout the playoffs and a reminder of how close they came to not getting it. That hole in the middle of the ball would have been pretty glaring if they had lost Game 7.
