The NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James had a determined eye on the NBA TITLE PRIZE. He took a lot of heat (pun intended) for is stealth like feud with former coach and Israeli David Blatt. The chemistry wasn't right. At midseason new coach Tyronn Lue received James' support and effort resulting in the CAVS winning the NBA title - (Keith Allison photo) All-NBA First Team

Tyronn Lue - (NBA photo)   David Blatt - (NBA photo)

SPORTS NOTES - CAVS LUE's CREW WIN NBA TITLE

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

The NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James had a determined eye on the NBA TITLE PRIZE. During his career LeBron James has been subject to a lot of criticism particularly when he departed Cleveland to play for the Miami Heat. Last season he returned to Cleveland and promised them an NBA title. Now that he has delivered the question is... Is LeBron James really the king of Cleveland?

Friday, June 24, 2016

LUE 4 BLATT CHANGE TESTS POSITIVE

When former Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt was fired during mid season with the team in 1st place in their conference a shock wave roared around the world. The major question raised was how can you fire a coach whose team is in 1st place and had taken the team to the NBA finals last season?

The answer came about this past Sunday June 19 when the Cavs overcame all odds to come from behind with a 3-1 deficit, rack up three straight wins to take the title from the defending champs the Golden State Warriors who this season established and NBA record 73-9 season. The added spice to the Cavs life is they had to win game seven on the Warriors home court.

The 2016 playoffs marked the first NBA postseason to feature multiple comebacks from a 3-1 deficit. The Warriors rallied from that deficit to defeat the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Golden State was on the losing end of such a comeback in The Finals, as Cleveland became the first of 33 teams to rally from 3-1 down in a championship series.

After taking on the post Blatt's replacement and former Blatt assistant coach, 39-year-old Tyronn Lue had to deal with a team with massive ego's, and talent and turn a winning team without chemistry into a triumphant team with chemistry. Lue's biggest obstacle and ironically his biggest supporter was their mega star LeBron James.

Following Blatt's departure the media was rife with conspiracy stories that James was behind his dismissal. He was accused of trying to be the coach and ignoring Blatt's leadership. The real deal rumor was that James and Blatt could not get along and James disagreed with many of Blatt's decisions.

One rumor was in that when Blatt called plays, James changed them. The incident embellished the belief that James did not respect his coach. When confronted, James denied a conflict but despite his response there appeared to be smoke on the water.

The shocker came in January prior to the All-Star game break. The team was on a two game wining streak when the ax came down on Blatt's head delivered by Cavaliers GM David Griffin. At the time the Cavs were in first place in the Western Conference after 41 games with a 30-11 record. That 41 game mark is exactly one half of an NBA 82 game regular season.

There was also a belief that Lue was involved in a conspiracy to get the head coaching job. That thought has since been denied by Lue and the rumor squelched.

The move took Lue by surprise and he had little time to get the team focused and together. One of his major moves was to harmonize the squad. In part he let James know that as great as he is eventually the game will move on.

In a sense he applied the Quincy Jones logic when Jones assembled a group of music super stars together to record 'We Are the World.' Jones insisted that the music super stars to leave their egos at the door.

The communication and strategy obviously worked resulting in the NBA title. Lue accomplished what Golden State's Steve Kerr did last year: win a championship in his first season as an NBA head coach.

Lue is the seventh coach to accomplish the feat in NBA history, joining Kerr (2015 Warriors), Pat Riley (1982 Lakers), Paul Westhead (1980 Lakers), George Senesky (1956 Warriors), John Kundla (1949 Lakers) and Eddie Gottlieb (1947 Warriors).

His achievement was more enhanced since he only coached 41 regular-season games (27 wins 14 losses) which is the lowest total of games coached for a championship-winning coach at the time of his Finals debut capped off with a 16 win 5 loss playoff record.

The strange idiosyncrasy to this story is Blatt's 31-10 regular season record over the same amount of 41 games prior to his dismissal is better than Lue's results. Last season Blatt's CAVS posted a 14-6 playoff record and lost to the Warriors in six games in the finals. The main difference being Lue brought home the bacon and led the CAVS to the NBA title.

Lue also gained James' respect. The latest sign of that comes via this Instagram post LeBron published Friday in which he says Lue is "the best coach in the world.

The interest in the competition broke television viewing records. Game 7 averaged 31,018,000 viewers – peaking with 44,807,000 viewers – the third-most-watched NBA game on record.

The seven-game series was the most-watched NBA Finals in ABC history, and most-watched since 1998, averaging 20,215,000 viewers per game.

The back-to-back Cavaliers-Warriors NBA Finals in 2015 and 2016 are the two-most-watched and highest-rated NBA Finals ever on ABC and overall since 1998.

During his career James has been subject to a lot of criticism particularly when he departed Cleveland to play for the Miami Heat. Last season he returned to Cleveland and promised them an NBA title.

Now that he has delivered on his promise he is the toast of the town in Cleveland after ending the city's 52-year pro sports title drought. But the city's most iconic sports legend -- Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown who believes James deserves more than just a fancy championship ring, Brown feels that James is worthy of a statue.

Brown led the Cleveland Browns to the 1964 championship, the last pro title the city has enjoyed until the Cavs' epic Game 7 win over the defending champion Warriors on Sunday.

Brown said of James "That young man put out so much blood, sweat and tears it's unbelievable. He gave up his life. He could've had a heart attack he was playing so hard. [He's] a young man who has taken responsibility on every level... (With his commitment to) community, family, team, organization, city... and he's done it with grace. He's carried himself well. He has bitten the bullet many times, and it's paid off for him. His legacy is set, and I'm so happy for him."

LeBron James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks during The Finals 2016, leading the Cavaliers to their first NBA championship. Here is a closer look at James’ achievements in the series and where he now stands in Finals and NBA playoff history for various categories:

1: James led all players in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in The Finals 2016, the first player to do that in any playoff series in NBA history.

3: James is the third player to record a triple-double in a Finals Game 7, joining James Worthy (1988) and Jerry West 1969).

5: James is the fifth player to win at least three Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Awards, joining Michael Jordan (six), Shaquille O’Neal (three), Tim Duncan (three) and Magic Johnson (three)

6: James is the first player in 50 years and the only non-Celtic in NBA history to play in six consecutive Finals.

7: James has seven career Finals triple-doubles, one shy of Magic Johnson’s record (eight).

10: During The Finals, James became the only player to rank in the top 10 on the career postseason list in points, rebounds and assists. James now ranks third all time in playoff assists (1,348) fourth in points (5,572 points) and ninth in rebounds (1,758).

18: James scored 18 consecutive points for Cleveland during its Game 6 victory, the second-longest such playoff streak of his career. He scored the Cavaliers’ last 27 points against the Pistons on May 31, 2007.

41: James scored 41 points in Game 5 and Game 6, becoming the first player with back-to-back 40-point Finals games since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000.

68: James has made an NBA-record 68 Finals three-pointers. 131: James has

131 playoff victories, tied for seventh most in NBA history. With Kobe Bryant retiring, the only active player with more postseason victories is Tim Duncan (157).

176: James has 176 career 20-point playoff games, an NBA record. During The Finals, he passed Michael Jordan (173).

Now that all is said and done the question is... Is LeBron James really the king of Cleveland?

Since they burned his jersey when he departed to play for the Miami Heat Cleveland NOW loves James but Akron, Ohio, his home town, made their love for him explicitly clear. Following a boisterous championship parade for the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Wednesday, James made his way on Thursday to Akron, Ohio where a crowd of about 25,000 celebrated their native son.

The event's speakers included Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan who declared: "Every king has a kingdom and every kingdom must have roads" as he unveiled an honorary blue "King James Way" sign. King James Way marks a section between Market and Exchange streets in Akron's downtown. In this case the King has been crowned.

NATIONAL RADIO PUBLISHED IN 5 LANGUAGES

National Radio text is published in five languages, Thai, French, Russian, Khmer (Cambodian language) and English, Any of our foreign language material and our Roman Wanderaugh columns is legally available ONLY on our National Radio site. Our sports, entertainment and feature programming has been broadcast on over 1000 radio stations