Image via Complex Original
Game 7. Instant classic.
In the immediate aftermath of arguably the most dramatic and historic game in NBA history, putting into perspective what we saw from the Cavaliers and Warriors should probably require at least a 24-hour waiting period. But we've got no chill and we're way too hyped right now.
Cleveland completed the unthinkable Sunday, erasing a 3-1 deficit for the first time in NBA Finals history as LeBron James captured his third ring, and third Finals MVP, dethroning the greatest team in regular season history in the process. So, yeah, this was one was unforgettable.
But with all that said, where does Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals rank on our list of the greatest games we've ever seen? The Complex squad couldn't wait to weigh in.
Of course Game 7 is the greatest.
I've been known to favor a salacious headline and I suggested the premise here, so spoiler alert: yes. The combination of stakes, backstory, and game quality say yes, yes, yes.
Game 7. Opponent holds the best regular season record of any team in the history of the sport. Opponent also has universally acknowledged handsomest, "disruptingest," game-of-H-O-R-S-E-winningest player of all time, plus a likeable bad guy to boot. Previously down 3-1. Town without a championship for 52 years. Hometown hero. Who just happened to have jilted said town for a sexier city seven years before, only to return to hometown with the express intention of bringing said town a 'chip. Hometown hero is also just happens to be the most maligned pro athlete ever, which is crazy, but also, like, storyline No. 7 here.
What's the comp? Start with the great Super Bowls I've seen: XXV was Norwood's miss; XXXIV was the Rams stopping the Titans at the goal; various Vinatieri last-second field goals for the '00s Pats; XLII was the Tyree catch; XLIX was the Butler interception. Great games all, complete with self-attendant Super Bowl hype. If Tom Brady had been originally drafted by the Patriots (No. 1 overall as an 18-year-old); played four seasons with the Cowboys alongside Terrell Owens and LaDainian Tomlinson, and then returned to the Pats, then we could talk. Pats/Boston would also have to be lovable losers.
Recent Game 7s? 2013 and 2010 NBA Finals come to mind immediately. '10 was a tight game but nothing like this one; '13 was completely overshadowed by Game 6 that year. Game 7 of the 2014 World Series saw a team that had been crappy for 30 years win as a wild card. There was no LeBron James in that game, tho. (The fifth-most famous player in this year's NBA Finals is more well known than all of the players in that series combined.) Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS (if Mets had won); Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS (if the Yankees hadn't lost to the Marlins in the World Series); Game 7 of the 1991 World Series (OK, this one might actually rate, but all of my co-workers were 2 years old back then).
Almost all college sports championship games are winner take all, and college sports are fun, and sometimes the games are weird and exciting because there are a lot of 19-year-olds playing and they don't know what they're doing half the time. But for that reason alone, no.
Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals; Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS; Game 6 of the 1986 World Series; any number of NFL conference championship games. Also great games, but not Game 7s.
My normally boisterous-in-the-summer block in Brooklyn was quiet tonight, because of this game. Serious momentum swings. The never-out-of-it nature of the Warriors (20-plus point leads are not safe with that squad; the Cavs led by 7 at the most in the second half). Draymond's kick to the nuts (various, earlier in playoffs); Draymond's kick to the nuts (5-of-5 from beyond the arc in the first half). J.R. Smith, the good, J.R. Smith, the bad, J.R. Smith the WORLD CHAMPION. LeBron's block (first half) LeBron's block (second half). LeBron, LeBron, LeBron.—Jack Erwin
Game 7 had it all.
Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals was the best basketball game I remember seeing.
Whether it was the greatest game ever is something that's as likely to be settled as whether Hall of Fame Player X is better than Hall of Fame Player Y, but I for one am leaning towards hyperbole.
Great games aren't just the ones that end in last-second buzzer beaters. Great games are made by situations. And pressure. And stakes. And stars. And stages. And storylines. Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals had all of that.
LeBron James won Cleveland its first title in 52 years, helping them become the first team in NBA history to come back in the finals after being down 3-1. He did so not against any ordinary opponent, but against literally the greatest team in NBA history. The series had scrums and smack-talk and suspensions. Injuries and hard fouls and subtle shots. The two best basketball players on planet earth dueled it out for seven games, and in the end, the youthful, crowd-favorite back-to-back MVP was beaten by the will of a man unrelentingly tested by the media and detested by millions of strangers.
A song entitled "F**k Bron Bron" has over 500K views on YouTube, but that didn't stop the man from getting 27/11/11/2/3 in this game or averaging 30/11//9/2/3 a game for the series. Nor did it stop him from leading the entire NBA Finals in points, rebounds, and assists. Against a team that won 73 out of 82 regular season games.
Kyrie Irving—the OTHER point guard in this series who didn't even make it through Game 1 of last year's finals—dropped the dagger Game 7 three over the best shooter in NBA history with under a minute left. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green—three of the NBA's best young players—experienced the most crushing defeat of their lives. The wife and children of the league's MVP were (and continue to be) mocked on social media. This wasn't basketball, this was theater.
Best game I can remember.—Maurice Peebles
The only thing missing was an epic ending.
Putting into words what we all witnessed is incredibly hard right now.
How do you write succinctly and coherently about a history making performance, the level of which only the diehards thought was possible a few days, merely minutes after it ended?
I really can't. I just know what I watched was amazing. It was everything that Games 1-6 weren't. It was everything the entire playoffs weren't. And it was everything we dreamed of—sorry, Warriors fans—in the most dramatic of situations possible.
The only thing Game 7 was missing was that iconic ending. Selfishly, I wanted that last-second shot, otherwise it's going to fall a little short on my list. I needed it because I think I can make the case—while getting shouted down from a lot of people—that plenty of other games would top this one. I was sitting in the right field bleachers—Section 203, for the record—when Aaron Boone became a certified legend in Game 7 of 2003 ALCS. Hell, I can easily make the case for the Villanova-North Carolina NCAA championship game back in April being a better game than Game 7 considering we saw a double-digit comeback in the final few minutes and one of the greatest buzzer beaters in college basketball history. Do not sleep on it.
But in the aftermath of LeBron's ultimate triumph, Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals is up there.
More than anything, I'm going to remember LeBron's chase down block of Andre Iguodala with 1:51 to go and the game tied at 89. That left me breathless. That left me in awe—for the millionth time—of arguably the greatest athlete in the world. And a 111 ticks of the clock after that I was smiling, cheering for LeBron and Cleveland. Not only because I pegged the Cavs to win this series, but because I—we—were witness to the kind of the game that twisted your insides, rattled your nerves, left you emotionally exhausted, and made a little history.
Can't ask for much more than that.—Adam Caparell
The weight of the game clouded people’s perception.
What a game? Game 7 was everything we could’ve hoped for in terms of a narrative. This was a heavyweight fight, with Steph Curry and the Warriors as Frazier and LeBron and the Cavs as Ali. For the first three quarters, haymakers were answered with haymakers, but then the fourth came and, truthfully, it was a little anticlimactic until the last two minutes. LeBron’s block on Andre Iguodala’s layup and Kyrie’s three over Steph were the only action in that quarter. The weight of the game clouded people’s perception of how good the game actually was. I mean both teams combined for 1-of-17 down the stretch. So I wouldn’t say it was the best game I’ve ever seen.
I’m going to go with Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Up 3-0 in the series, the Bombers take a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth with Mariano Rivera on the mound poised to close out the sweep. First, Boston’s Dave Roberts steals second base, then, Bill Mueller hits a 1-1 pitch up the middle to tie it up and send it into extras.
Three innings later in the 12th, David Ortiz hits a walk-off two-run shot into the right field stands to set off the greatest comeback in American major sports history and eventually win the World Series to end an 86-year drought and the Curse of the Bambino. I’m a diehard Yankees, so I’m a bit biased. It’s going to be hard for a game to top that one for me.—Angel Diaz