What @kingjames considers being the GOAT ?
New episode of More Than An Athlete out on @espn+. pic.twitter.com/7XSQ2GpOVo— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) December 30, 2018
In one of the most shocking upsets in NBA Finals history, LeBron James led the Cleveland Cavaliers back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to beat the 73-win Golden State Warriors in 2016. The victory not only sullied the Warriors chances at being considered the greatest team of all time, but delivered a championship to the city of Cleveland after a 52-year drought.
It also cemented James as the greatest player in NBA history. At least that’s what he thinks.
“That one right there made me the greatest player of all time, that’s what I felt,” James said of beating the Warriors. “I was super, super ecstatic to win one for Cleveland because of the 52-year drought. Like I was ecstatic. The first wave of emotion when everyone saw me crying like that was all for 52 years of everything that has gone on in sports in Cleveland.
“And then after I stopped I was like ‘that one right there made you the greatest player of all time.’ Everybody was just talking how (the Warriors) were the greatest team of all time like it was the greatest team ever assembled, and for us to come back the way we came back in the fashion I was like, ‘you did something special.’ That’s probably one of the only times in my career I felt like ‘oh s**t, like you did something special.’
“I haven’t had really had time to really like sit back and think, but that was a moment.”
The 2016 Finals proved to be the lone victory for LeBron and the Cavs in the four consecutive matchups with the Warriors from 2015-2018. James is a three-time NBA champion, and three-time NBA Finals MVP. He has led his team to the Finals eight times throughout his career, including each of the past seven years.
Michael Jordan, whom James is most often compared to in “greatest ever” conversations, won all six NBA Finals in which he appeared, and was named the Finals MVP in each of them.