Return of the King: LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History by Brian Windhorst & Dave McMenamin

Author:Brian Windhorst & Dave McMenamin [Windhorst, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & Recreation / Basketball
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2017-04-11T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“IT DIDN’T FEEL RIGHT”

Drederick Irving slammed the door to the trainer’s room and quickly walked out of the locker room into the hallway. A few minutes later Jeff Wechsler, the agent for Kyrie Irving, entered and reopened the training room door and went in. Family members or agents being in a locker room is unheard of and the training room is one of the most guarded places in professional sports.

This was an extreme situation. Irving had collapsed during overtime of Game 1 of the Finals and limped off the floor. It was his left knee again. This time it was different and Irving knew it. The pain was acute. He’d been trying to drive on the Warriors’ Klay Thompson when they banged knees, and he’d dropped to the court as the pain seared around his knee. As he rounded the corner, exiting the tunnel from the court with help from trainer Steve Spiro, he slammed his jersey to the concrete floor in pain and frustration. The left knee, the one he’d been rehabbing and treating with every therapy known to medicine for weeks, was on fire.

The Cavs had gone step for step with the Warriors all night. Coach David Blatt believed his team’s best chance was to slow the Warriors and their offensive talents down, and they had done so, with LeBron James controlling the ball and the team’s defenders desperately attempting to stay with the Warriors’ shooters.

Neither team led by more than three during the fourth quarter, with James and Irving scoring or assisting on every basket. With 30 seconds left and the game tied, Irving leapt to make a fantastic block on Curry from behind. It was probably the finest defensive play of his career. He had looked healthy throughout the game, which was a huge development, as he scored 23 points and moved well.

Regardless of how the game turned out, that portended well for the Cavs’ hopes in the series. If James could exert his will and Irving was close to his normal self, the underdogs believed they had a chance. The Cavs ended up getting two chances to win the game at the end of the fourth quarter, with Iman Shumpert’s shot at the buzzer just missing as it skidded off the rim.

Then Irving went down and the Cavs fell apart. Curry scored four quick points and Harrison Barnes made a three-pointer, blowing the game open. The Warriors won by eight, Curry finishing with 26. James had 44 points but took 38 shots to get there, missing 20. James had sworn off that type of volume scoring earlier in his career, and playing that way—dominating the ball and finding ways to shoot even if the shots weren’t quality—made him sick. But the once deep Cavs had gotten thin and he agreed this was the best chance.

In the training room Dr. Richard Parker manipulated Irving’s knee. One of the finest surgeons in the country, Parker didn’t find any damage to the ligaments. Just like the MRIs showed, everything was still connected.

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