In the 2016 NBA Finals, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers made NBA history by erasing a 3-1 series deficit to win it all against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors and hand the Cavs their first title.
After the Cavs lost Game 4 at home, LeBron told his guys the team wasn’t going to lose again. JR Smith, who was part of that historic team, recently talked about James’ message with Bleacher Report:
Behind the stellar play of LeBron and Kyrie Irving, the Cavs won Games 5, 6 and 7 to capture Cleveland’s first championship in franchise history. Smith averaged 12.0 points while shooting 35.0 percent from beyond the arc in Games 5, 6 and 7.
James won his third Finals MVP after putting up 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game in the series. It’s pretty incredible to think that LeBron could see the writing on the wall even after losing Game 4 at home and being in such a huge hole.
After losing that 2016 Finals to the Cavs, the Warriors signed Kevin Durant in free agency and wound up winning two more titles against Cleveland. The Cavs lost the 2017 Finals in five games and the 2018 Finals in four.
Smith, of course, made one of the biggest blunders in Finals history in Game 1 of the 2018 Finals. He grabbed an offensive rebound after George Hill missed a free throw that would have given the Cavs a one-point lead, which then resulted in the boneheaded result.
Smith thought the Cavs were up one and just dribbled the shot clock out, sending the game to overtime. It created possibly the best LeBron James meme ever.