Warriors defeat Cavaliers for NBA Championship

CLEVELAND -- Revived by a fresh-faced shooting superstar and a first-year coach who made them believe, the Golden State Warriors again reign supreme.

Their 40-year NBA championship drought is finally over.

A half century of misery in Cleveland drags on. LeBron James just didn't have enough help.

Stephen Curry and finals MVP Andre Iguodala scored 25 points apiece, Draymond Green recorded a triple-double and the Warriors -- using a barrage of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter -- won their first title since 1975 by finishing off James and the Cavaliers 105-97 on Tuesday night in Game 6.

For the first time since Gerald Ford was in the White House, disco was in vogue and Rick Barry was flicking in free throws under-handed, the best pro basketball team resides in the Bay Area.

And these Warriors are a lot like Barry and his old crew: fluid, balanced, together. Just like coach Steve Kerr hoped.

After falling behind by two points early in the third quarter, the Warriors took control with Curry, the league's MVP, and Iguodala, who made his first start of the season in Game 4, leading the way.
"World champs," Curry said, letting the title sink in. "This is truly special. This group is a special group. From the time we started the season this is what we envisioned and a lot of hard work goes into it, all the way down to the last minute of this game. This is what it's all about. ... We're going to remember this for a long time."

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The Golden State Warriors won an NBA title on Tuesday pushing the pace, launching 3s and starting a 6-foot-6 'center.' Associate head coach Alvin Gentry, who will make Anthony Davis' New Orleans Pelicans more fun next season, excitedly credited Phoenix Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni while celebrating. Gentry served under D'Antoni during the seven-seconds-or-less era, and he hasn't forgotten all the crazy criticism that coaching staff received for the sort of outside-the-box thinking that completely changed the game.
From ESPN's Ethan Sherwood Strauss:

Victorious Gentry: "Tell Mike D'Antoni he's vindicated! We just kicked everyone's ass playing the way everybody complained about!"

6:53 PM - 16 Jun 2015

Gentry elaborated to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck:

I would say this is vindication for Mike D'Antoni, if nothing else.  We played like he's been trying to get this league to play forever.  And you can win a championship like that.  So for all the people that said you can't win a championship being a three-point shooting team, and not really a low-post scoring presence or anything like that, we just did it.  So I think it's great for Mike D'Antoni.

Asked postgame about Stephen Curry breaking the mold for a transformative player, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr referenced D'Antoni and Steve Nash's Suns, too. "Steve was kind of the original Steph Curry," he said, adding that he thought Phoenix was going to win a title that way.
"I think Steve kind of laid out a vision for a whole generation of young point guards," Kerr said. "And with the game changing, Mike D'Antoni kind of initiating that style in Phoenix, the floor starting to spread, the whole league kind of playing shooting 4s and 5s and playing a little faster, I think Mike and Steve in many ways set the table for Steph Curry. And I think Steph would tell you that, too."

Kerr told ESPN that the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, with their spacing and shooting, had already vindicated D'Antoni. For some, that is certainly true, but the Warriors winning means much more. To the Charles Barkleys of the world, the Heat's system wasn't relevant because they had LeBron James on the roster. The same goes for the Spurs and Tim Duncan. Golden State just won the Larry O'Brien trophy with Curry breaking 3-point shooting records alongside four 6-6 to 6-7 guys in the starting lineup. Fans of those Phoenix teams should have smiles on their faces, and it's not just because of Leandro Barbosa finally winning a ring.