Brian Windhorst - Return of the King: LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History

To the NBA family and the leagues fans, whose professionalism, support, and passion have enabled a dream job to come true.

BW

To Mom, Dad, Melanie, Shawna, Brian, Jeff, Rob, Ollie, Conall, Magooch, and Dr. James Naismith. Thanks for all your support as I continue to follow the bouncing ball around the world. I love you.

DM

This is a story that not many people know.

Sure, they know how the Cavaliers became the first team in fifty-two years to bring a major championship back home to Cleveland. They know how the Cavs became the first team to overcome a 31 deficit in the NBA Finals to come back and win. They know how we beat the first team ever to win 73 games during the regular season to do so. They know we became the first team since the Washington Bullets in 1978 to win a Game 7 of the Finals on the road and hoist the Larry OBrien Trophy on the same floor that our opponents fought so hard to host the game on.

But they dont know what happened to the Larry OBrien Trophy three days later when more than a million people descended upon downtown Cleveland for a championship parade the likes of which has never been seen before.

The story starts with me and Channing Frye.

We were supposed to be in our own individual cars to soak it all in during the parade route. Somehow, Channing ended up on a flatbed truck with his family. We both have little kids. I was like, Yo, Id rather jump in here with you guys than be stuck in a convertible. Because it was hot out. So me and my family, we jump in that car with the Fryes and were just taking in the scene and it was mayhem.

People everywhere. Lined up fifteentwenty deep wherever you looked. On rooftops. Climbing out of windows. Hanging on streetlamps. Everywhere. I realized the magnitude of what this day was. You could tell that the city had never planned a championship parade in, well, fifty years. They didnt know that they needed to have guardrails up. They didnt know what hit em.

Kind of like the Warriors, actually.

I remember about halfway through the parade, me and Channing look over and I see this guy running next to the car with a big towel covering up something in his arms. I was like, That looks like the trophy.

And the guy, hes runningand hes not running fast because our cars arent really movingand he says to us, Hey, do you guys want this? And Im like, Yeah! Well take it! In my head, Im thinking, Oh, this is our turn. Hes just taking the trophy from car to car and everyone gets some time with the trophy. So he gets on the truck with us and after a few minutes, after weve been raising the trophy, and after the crowd is going crazy every time we lift it up and the sun shimmers off its polished, sphered head, the guy was like, You dont understand how happy I was to see you guys.

I mean, everyone was happy to see us that day. We just won a championship for Cleveland. But there was a different level of appreciation coming from this guy.

I was like, What are you talking about? Didnt you just bring this over from another player? Youve seen one Cavs player lift this thing up, youve seen em all, right?

He was like, Richard, the trophy was on the back of a truck that went the wrong way at the start of the parade route. So all of the sudden, its me, the trophy, one million fans, and no security, no nothing.

Oh.

He was panicked. He unbolted the thing and started running around looking for a place to put it. He said, Your car was the first one that we happened to see and we latched on like Rose to the floating door in Titanic.

So thats the story of how it came to be that the only people with video or pictures with the trophy during the parade are me and Channingtwo lifelong friends ever since I helped recruit him to our alma mater, the University of Arizonabecause some guy ended up stumbling upon our truck in the parade route. He didnt bother bringing it to anybody elseyou know, like that LeBron James guy.

It kind of felt like all the things that had to happen for us to become champions. I know the city of Cleveland can relate. While Northeast Ohioans lived through The Shot, The Fumble, The Drive, and The Decision, I had my own downfalls on the biggest stage before I finally had my championship moment.

In the days leading up to Game 7, in my head I ran through all of them. Ive come up just short so many times. I lost back-to-back Finals with the then New Jersey Nets. Ive been top 10 in the league in scoring multiple years and didnt make an All-Star game. Ive been on the U.S. Olympic team, but it was the team with Larry Brown and a bunch of misfits, and we had to fight just to win the bronze. So it was just like always so, so close. This was my entire life. This was my entire career. Im not Tristan Thompson who is twenty-five years old. Im not Kyrie Irving who has his whole career in front of him. This could be it for me.

When I was a kid, Id imagine what Id do if I was fortunate enough to win it all. Somehow it worked out just the way I pictured it. As soon as the buzzer sounded, everyone takes off, jumping and hugging and piling on top of one another, and I was the one guy on the bench that just kind of froze there and just put my head in my hands and started crying. I wouldnt say I was sobbing. I wouldnt say I was weeping. It was just more of, Wow, man. Not only have I been through so much in fifteen years in the league, but to feel it for those ten days just slipping through your hands again after falling down 31 and to come this close, it was something. After the amount of stress that was in all that, the championship feeling was a feeling of relief. The initial feeling wasnt that of joy for me, it was of relief.