By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
Among the greatest feats of LeBron James’ career, we find the legendary comeback during the 2016 Finals against Golden State. A former teammate of the winger made revelations about the latter during the series… and it fits the character well.
Whether he wins a final championship title or not, LeBron James nonetheless remains one of the greatest players in basketball history. Currently in his 22nd season, the King continues to make history with absolutely insane performances for a player who will celebrate his 40th birthday in a few weeks.
On the other hand, this is one of the four-time champion’s favorite pastimes NBA : take on challenges unthinkable for his peers, in order to magnify his legend a little more. Dominant as can be, he also experienced moments with his back against the wall which pushed him to shine like never before. We think of his 45-point, 15-rebound game against the Celtics during the 2012 playoffs, or his Game 6 in the Finals against the Spurs a year later.
LeBron’s huge speech before Game 5 of the 2016 Finals
That being said, LBJ’s greatest accomplishment remains the title won with his native Ohio Cavaliers in 2015-16. Especially since Cleveland was facing Warriors who were coming off the best regular season in history (73 wins for 9 losses)… and after four games, the score was 3-1 for Stephen Curry & co. Nothing to panic Bron, however, as revealed by Iman Shumpert on the Big Podcast :
Basically, LeBron told us: “We’re going to go (to Oakland for Game 5), we’re going to win and after that we’re going to win at home. Because it was going to put pressure on them, they don’t really want to win, they just want to win one last game because either they win at home or we will automatically tie in Game 6 because no one wants to come back to Cleveland .
We will win this match, I guarantee you that we will win it. I don’t care what we have to do, we’re going to win. » Draymond (Green) did not play. Everyone was like, “Wait, you lose your superpowers when this guy isn’t here?” Nobody points to the sky anymore? » (laughs)
Those who claim that the Chosen One does not know how to be a good leader can clearly go and put their clothes on after such a statement.
The Cavs were on the brink of collapse, Golden State had just won Game 4, but none of that was enough to destabilize LeBron and time ended up proving him right. After this speech, Tyronn Lue’s men won the following four matches, including a legendary Game 7 which saw the winger score a legendary counter on Andre Iguodala.
If the Cavaliers managed to overthrow the Warriors in 2016, it is also because LeBron James knew how to find the right words to motivate his troops. In any case, Iman Shumpert is not about to forget the confident speech of her franchise player.
