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Sports
LeBron Finally Brings A Title Home To Cleveland
LeBron James said he returned home to bring Cleveland a championship. On Sunday he stayed true to his word, breaking a 52-year major title drought with an MVP performance in an improbable Game 7 win over the Golden State Warriors.
It's a championship 52 years in the making.
With 333 of the 336 regu- lation minutes through seven games of the NBA Finals in the books, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were tied 89-89.
LeBron James kept the Cavs alive with a late chase- down block and Kyrie Irv- ing put them ahead for good with 3-pointer with 53 sec- onds left, to vanquish the championship curse of Cleveland once and for all.
James, with 27 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists and three blocked shots in play- ing 47 of 48 minutes led the way. Irving -- 26 points and six assists -- followed in tan-
dem.
And the Cavs, at long last,
were on top of the basketball world with their first NBA title.
One that was won by the Cavs, but one that was made all the more meaningful by decades of losing seasons from Cleveland's Browns and Indians, as well.
It took a native son -- the most important draft pick in franchise history 13 oh-so- lucky years ago, born and bred just about 30 miles down the road, in Akron, Ohio -- to break the cycle of disappointment.
If back-to-back titles in Miami were James' break- through as one of the game's
all-time greats, the champi- onship in Cleveland repre- sents his ascension to living-legend status.
Forget The Shot, The Drive, The Fumble. The Land now has The Comeback thanks to The King.
His NBA Finals record still stands at a lopsided 3-4 -- not nearly as stellar a bullet point on his résumé than the four MVP awards and top- five ranking in all-time play- off points, assists and steals -- but that third ring carries so much weight.
Hundreds of players have won the NBA title before, but nobody has ever done it quite like James and the Cavs did this year.
James dominated the se- ries, pushing it to an improb- able brink with back-to-back 41-point games in to bring Cleveland back from a 3-1 deficit. The first 32 teams to fall down 3-1 in the Finals ended up losers.
The Cavs, led by a certain No. 23, made sure that streak ended when it came to 33.
He did it, of course, on the same court as the league's back-to-back MVP in Stephen Curry. Only any- one watching could see by James' play that when everything matters the most, he remains the best the sport has to offer, with Curry still a level below. A win by the
Warriors would have solidi- fied their place in the discus- sion of the greatest team ever. James' performance in the series changed the conversation and steered it toward consideration for him as the greatest player ever.
And he did it by elevating a group of teammates like Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson -- with a combined zero playoff games between them before James came back to Cleve- land -- to the game's zenith.
As he famously posted in his homecoming letter in the Players' Tribune, "In North- east Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have."
LeBron James Named Unanimous Finals MVP After Cavs' Game 7 Win
Obama Stays Aboard Air Force One To Watch Final Minutes Of Game 7
President Obama and his family stayed aboard Air Force One to watch the final nail-biting minutes of the game after landing at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday night, the White House confirmed to ABC News.
LeBron James was unanimously named Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals for the third time fol- lowing the Cleveland Cava- liers' 93-89 win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 on Sunday night.
Over the seven-game se- ries, James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists, with an effective field goal percentage of 53.3. He became the third player to have a triple-double in Game 7 of the Finals, joining Jerry West in 1969 and James Worthy in 1988.
"Best player on the planet,'' Cavs teammate Kyrie Irving said, later comparing James to Lud- wig van Beethoven.
"I'm very thankful that I have a guy like that that's leading our team that I can continue to learn from. And when my time does come of being able to lead a franchise and see the landscape of how it's supposed to be composed, I watched Beethoven right now of LeBron James compose a game.
Richard Jefferson with the Cavs in Las Vegas.
Cavs announce Championship Parade On Wednesday
The championship parade and celebration for the newly crowned NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers will be held on Wednesday.
The Cavaliers are sched- uled to arrive back in Cleve- land around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, with a huge crowd of fans expected to greet them as they emerge off the plane with the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
LEBRON JAMES
Cavaliers Stop In Las Vegas To Celebrate NBA Title Before Heading To Cleveland
The Cavaliers' celebration of their first NBA title in fran- chise history included an extra stop between Oakland, California, and Cleveland.
The team went to Las Vegas to celebrate its cham- pionship after defeating the- Golden State Warriors 93-89 in Game 7, arriving just be- fore 2 a.m. PT Monday to party at the XS Nightclub at the Encore casino.
President Barack Obama and his family stayed aboard Air Force One to watch the final minutes of Game 7 after landing at Joint Base An- drews on Sunday night.
The First Family were re- turning from Yosemite Valley, Calif., after a trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and Yosemite National Park in California to encour- age more people to appreciate and visit national parks.
Air Force One touched
down at Andrews at 10:19 p.m., with less than two min- utes remaining in the deciding game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors.
At 10:37 p.m., moments after LeBron James and the Cavaliers finally brought a championship home to Cleve- land, Pres. Obama jogged down the steps of Air Force One followed by his daughters Malia and Sasha, and First Lady Michelle Obama.
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