CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Cavaliers won the Best Moment Award at the 2017 Greater Cleveland Sports Awards, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission announced at their 17th annual ceremony at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel Grand Ballroom Thursday night.
The Cavaliers earned the award by defeating the Golden State Warriors, 93-89, in Game 7 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena on Sunday, June 19th, and in doing so, becoming the first team in Cleveland to win a major sports championship in 52 years.
Despite being down, 2-0 and 3-1, in the best-of-seven series against the reigning league champion Warriors, the Cavaliers fought their way to three straight wins, including two at Oracle Arena, where Golden State lost just three times combined through the regular season and first three rounds of the playoffs.
It is the Cavaliers’ first-ever NBA Championship and the first major sports title for the city of Cleveland since the Browns took home the NFL Championship with an upset win over the Baltimore Colts in December of 1964.
By beating Golden State, the Cavaliers became the first team ever to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals and win the championship.
With 1:51 to play in the fourth quarter of Game 7, Warriors forward Andre Iguodala controlled a rebound and led the fast break before passing to and getting the ball right back from two-time league MVP Stephen Curry and going up for a go-ahead layup. With shooting guard J.R. Smith already defending Iguodala, Cavaliers small forward LeBron James swept in from the middle of the lane and got a clean block.
Following James’ block of Iguodala, the Cavaliers took the lead for good when point guard Kyrie Irving buried a deep three-pointer over Curry from the right wing.
With just 53 seconds to play and the score tied at 89-89, Irving hit the eventual game-winning three-pointer, a fall-away pull-up attempt that was heavily defended by Curry, and his 25-foot triple led to the championship win.
Following the win over Golden State, the Cavaliers were greeted by more than 20,000 fans at Hopkins International Airport on Monday, and then, lauded by 1.3 million people on the streets of downtown Cleveland for the first championship parade in the town since the 1948 Indians won the World Series.
