Now that we’ve had a little time to process the Cavs’ history-making win in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, we can go back and try to piece together just how everything transpired. How, for instance, after falling into a 2-0 hole thanks to a pair of demoralizing defeats to start the series, did LeBron James find the inspiration to bounce back and exert his will over the Warriors juggernaut and do what no team in league history had ever done before?
You have to find inspiration wherever you can get it, and for LeBron, it apparently took the form of another all-time sports great, whose recent passing has been mourned all around the world. According to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com, LeBron used the interim between Games 2 and 3 to study footage of boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
LeBron had spent the weekend watching old Muhammad Ali fights, in awe at the champ’s perseverance. His longtime friend and adviser, Nike executive Lynn Merritt, had suggested he study the way Ali carried himself in those epic 12- and 15-round fights. The way Ali took punches, knowing his opponent would eventually tire. The way he taunted opponents, flaunting his superior skill and talents, knowing he would get into their heads.
The analogy to boxing and Ali’s general demeanor makes perfect sense in hindsight. LeBron did precisely those things over the course of the next five games, which included a pair of absolutely dominant 40-point performances, a skirmish with Draymond Green that effectively goaded him into a suspension, and a good deal of trash talk directed at Steph Curry after swatting his shot into the stands on a couple of different occasions.
To call these NBA Finals a slugfest is a tired cliche, but it’s also a pretty accurate way to describe how LeBron and his Cavs emerged victorious after a grueling seven-game series.
(ESPN.com)
