Commentary: The three most beautiful words in the English language -- BLOCKED BY JAMES!

Oracle Arena, Oakland, California, June 19, 2016. Ladies and gentlemen: the exquisite hardcourt orator, Mr. Mike Breen: ... "Each team has a foul to give as we come up on one minute remaining, and they are putting Curry in a pick and roll, trying to get him on Irving! ... "Irving and Curry, one on one! ... Irving puts it up! ... IT'S GOOD! KYRIE IRVING! From downtown! And it's the Cavs by three!" "... Irving drives! A hop step inside! Floats it up! ... Misses! Rebound taken by Iguodala! Gets it to Curry! ... back to Iguodala! Up for the layup! ... "OHHH!" "OHHH!" "BLOCKED BY JAMES!" "LEBRON JAMES WITH THE REJECTION!!!!!! There it is. There it was. There it always will be: arguably, the single greatest moment in Cleveland sports history: which might, when it is all said and done, be LeBron's Mona Lisa. "BLOCKED BY JAMES!" It says here that nothing will ever match that matchless night on the other side of the continent, when, in the waning moments of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, LeBron James simply refused to allow the Golden State Warriors to win, and refused to let the Cavaliers lose. The rest was wall-to-wall goosebumps, compliments of the great Mike Breen. "BLOCKED BY JAMES!" Those three words should forever hang over every entrance to Rocket Arena for as long as it, he and we exist. The night LeBron James never played better. The night the Cavs, and their fans, never felt better. And the night the Warriors players never felt worse. It is arguably the greatest 30 seconds in Cleveland sports history. The greatest 30 seconds in LeBron James history. And the greatest 30 seconds in 30 seconds history. The final score in Game 7: the world champion Cleveland Cavaliers 93, the also-ran Golden State Warriors 89. LeBron didn't just reject the Golden State Warriors. He rejected the entire state of California. None of us who saw it will ever forget it. The kid from Akron throwing the city, and the rest of the state, onto his back, and barreling his way to the winner's circle that Cleveland sports teams and sports fans had spent decades trying to visit. Pick any show-stopping moment in LeBron's matchless professional career, and nothing outshines, or out-blinds that single, spine-tingling, glorious moment on the night of June 19, 2016 (10 years ago Friday), when LeBron Raymone James was at his absolute peak, and there was nothing Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors could do about it. Because LeBron was a man among boys who refused to let lesser teams win or his team lose. It was a Game 7 to end all Game 7's. A game that was so brilliantly played by the most unstoppable basketball force of them all. We may never again see brilliance to the degree flashed by LeBron on the greatest night of his career, when he became a basketball Babe Ruth. That game, those memories, that version of the brilliant Mike Breen, and the one and only King James, all coalesced into arguably the greatest, most dramatic playoff finish, with the greatest ending ever authored by arguably the greatest living player of them all. And all of it took place 10 years ago: June 19, 2016. OK, technically, as we sit here today, the date is June 20, 2026. Chances are, there will never be another LeBron type day such as the one we are celebrating today. I mean, how could there be? Dates such as these don't just roll into town unannounced. With that in mind, you are probably wondering, who were some of the other Cavs players who, 10 years ago, helped deliver that rarest of animals: a championship season for a Cleveland team. That Cavs championship team didn't need much help, because that Cleveland team had LeBron James, and, as we all know, any team that has LeBron has all it needs in trying to win an NBA championship. Just to be safe, however, the 2016 Cavs' roster also included Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, Richard Jefferson and Iman Shumpert, just to name a few. The world champion 2016 Cavaliers were every other team's worst nightmare. That Cavs team didn't just defeat opposing teams, the Cavs put those teams away for good. You didn't see that Cavs team allow opponents to go on a five-minute binge that suddenly turned a comfortable Cavs lead into an uncomfortable Cavs problem. It didn't happen very often, but when it did, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue called time out, and drew up a three-minute blitzkrieg that basically sent the opposing team back to their room without their dinner. The 2016 world champion Cavs were virtually unbeatable, and they have the hardware to prove it. They also had some kid from Akron. Contact Jim Ingraham at (440) 329-7135 or jingraham4@gmail.com.