From every angle, this year's NBA Finals didn't quite live up to David Stern's expectations, or his colleagues'. The Warriors had already declared their back-to-back championship with three consecutive blowout wins. The huge gap in strength between the Cavaliers and the Warriors was so significant that Stern even abandoned the idea of giving Cleveland any "off-court assistance."
Compared to the constantly record-breaking Western Conference playoffs, the only reason this year's Finals still held some attention was because people were curious to see what other records Zack could break. Nike and its allies had already started preparing to build up the new "Basketball God." Once Zack secured his second career championship, this back-to-back champion, the new face of the league, would officially be crowned with the "GOAT" halo, much like Michael Jordan in 1992.
Yes, as early as when Jordan was establishing the Bulls' first dynasty, the "Basketball God" aura had already appeared over his head. It was only later that Jordan, with his well-deserved accolades, truly cemented his place on the throne as the Basketball God. As one of the masterminds behind that "god-making movement," Stern knew full well that Zack's sponsors wouldn't wait until he truly had the qualifications to challenge Jordan before launching this campaign. Because by then, it would be too late.
As Ira Berkow of The New York Times put it: "Last decade, we witnessed Michael Jordan's reign. And in the next decade, a new GOAT has begun his dynasty, witnessed by us all."
Although in the post-Jordan era, Stern had fantasized about a star taking the torch from Jordan, Zack's emergence and his rapid rise had greatly shaken the commissioner. Zack's star power had long overshadowed all other players of his generation, even benefiting his rival, Kobe Bryant. As the leader of the "Anti-Zack Alliance," Kobe's popularity soared after settling the Eagle County incident, and he even became a shared idol for all fans who disliked Zack. Nike was already planning to formally ignite the "24 VS 30" war next season. After all, Kobe was their "wild child" they picked up halfway, perfectly suited to be a stepping stone for their "own child."
As for the "Chosen One," who Nike had originally placed high hopes on? No worries. James, at least with his incredibly smart decisions in the Finals, proved he still had untapped potential and hoped to succeed Kobe as the leader of the "Anti-Zack Alliance" in the future. Zack's arrival meant James was no longer irreplaceable in Nike's future empire plans. If James could prove with his actions that he was capable of engaging in that great competition with Zack, Nike wouldn't mind investing more in him. But if James couldn't do it, then in Nike's future plans, he could also be sacrificed as Zack's stepping stone. After all, in the world of basketball, there's only one GOAT. As for stepping stones, a few always appear every few years. Of course, since James was such an expensive stepping stone, Nike would still try everything to package him up and ensure he maintained the momentum to chase Zack, unless absolutely necessary.
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### Game 4: Setting the Stage
June 16, 2007, marked Game 4 of the Finals. Zack showed good form during warm-ups. Although he couldn't find that elusive "Goodnight, Los Angeles" feeling he had in the first two instances, after playing through injury, Zack felt his control over the game and his grasp of rhythm had grown to the point where he no longer craved that specific in-game state as much. As long as he was physically fit and his shooting touch was decent, Zack was confident he could beat any opponent.
Swish! In the player tunnel, after hitting a difficult, extra-long three-pointer as per his routine, Zack officially ended his pre-game warm-up.
That night, the Quicken Loans Arena was still packed. However, there were noticeably more fans openly wearing Warriors No. 30 jerseys in the stands. During the player introductions, Zack, who had already added to Cleveland's tragic sports history with two "The Dunks," even received applause second only to the arena's own master, LeBron James.
Were Cavaliers fans just going to stand by and watch Warriors fans take over their home court? What else could they do? After three consecutive blowout losses, did you expect these heartbroken Clevelanders, who now just wanted to calmly accept their team's fate, to respond with boos to the Warriors fans who had taken over their Finals tickets? Clevelanders had suffered enough. At this moment, they just wanted to quietly accompany their team to the end.
At center court, the never-say-die LeBron James and his "King's Guard" took their positions. On the Warriors' side, Zack and his "thug" teammates were laughing and joking, only taking their spots when reminded by the referee. The difference in mindset between the two teams was evident from the tip-off.
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### The Unstoppable Zack: A Masterclass in Off-Ball Play
After the tip-off, it was the Warriors' ball. Zack, using Artest's screen to move from the right side of the court to the left to receive the ball, immediately pulled up for a jumper as soon as he got it, trying to find his shooting touch from the left 45-degree angle. Clang! Zack didn't expect every shot to fall. But this off-ball offensive move made James, who was eager to double-team him relentlessly to silence him, frown. In the NBA, you can never double-team an off-ball player. As early as his rookie season, Zack had reminded teams with his off-ball ability that unless absolutely necessary, double-teaming him would be counterproductive. Although Zack's height and weight meant his off-ball movement consumed a lot of energy, in just one possession, Zack noticed that James was even worse at defending off-ball movement than he had imagined. This was a major weakness that plagued James throughout his career: compared to on-ball offense, where he could use his physical gifts to apply pressure, James would always habitually lose track of his man if you were good at playing off-ball.
On the return possession, James also missed a shot from the top of the key. It was the Warriors' offensive possession again. Zack shot a long two-pointer from the baseline, using Brown's screen. Swish! On TNT, Barkley, watching Zack choose not to attack with the ball in the first two possessions, wondered aloud, "Is the Messiah trying to tell those experts who think anyone can put up pretty stats like him with the ball in their hands that he can play great even without the ball?"
In the Warriors' third offensive possession, Zack seemed to confirm Barkley's guess, first using Brown's screen, then Artest's pick-and-roll to get a jump shot opportunity near the free-throw line. Swish! On the court, Zack hit another catch-and-shoot two-pointer, scoring 4 straight points for the Warriors to start the game.
Next, Zack eased up for two possessions—only by efficiently managing his energy could he ensure his off-ball offense remained effective. "Play three, rest two." This was Malone's suggestion when designing the off-ball strategy for him before the game. Zack, always one to take advice, followed Malone's suggestion, and after resting two possessions, he hit his first three-pointer of the game from the right 45-degree angle, over James's belated close-out. Zack's three-pointer left James utterly frustrated because he had already lost his defensive assignment during the previous coverage.
Immediately after, Zack attempted another three-pointer in the Warriors' next offensive possession. Clang! Under the basket, the loyal Brown tirelessly tipped the offensive rebound back to Zack. Zack, after briefly holding the ball and using a front-of-the-body dribble move to shake off Gooden, exploded into the paint and slammed home a one-handed dunk. Gooden's active help defense earned him the reward of making Zack decide to briefly hold the ball, fake him out, and then attack. Although Gooden was only a "man" for one second before Zack left him behind, lasting one second... why isn't that being a man?
At the Quicken Loans Arena, Zack's off-ball offense started red hot, while the Cavaliers' offense was as constipated as ever. Facing the Warriors' 2-3 zone defense, James, who had changed his game plan since Game 2, simply shifted his approach to breaking the zone from seeking pick-and-roll opportunities for drive-and-kick plays to opportunistically launching "cold arrows" from the perimeter.
Zack didn't understand why a simple zone defense was causing the Cavaliers, the top team in the East, such embarrassment. In Zack's limited basketball knowledge, a zone defense like the Warriors', designed purely to clog the paint, would be easily broken if he were the Warriors' opponent. He'd show "himself" how it could be torn apart with a flick of the wrist. At this moment, Zack wasn't looking down on "himself." Rather, in his opinion, the "himself" guarding the 2-3 zone for the Warriors was basically useless. How could such trash, despised even by dogs, be worthy of being the NBA's new GOAT?
On the court, the more Zack thought about it, the angrier he got. After completing an alley-oop dunk, he couldn't help but curse "himself," "What kind of crappy defense is this?" Next to him, Big Z, who happened to come over to help on defense, unfortunately became collateral damage. So, with a helpless sigh, Big Z, who never liked arguing, said to Zack, "I'll try my best to satisfy you next time."
However, facing what Zack considered "crappy defense," the Cavaliers, like headless chickens, bounced around for three games and one quarter without understanding how to break it. On the perimeter, James, after repeatedly missing shots, finally found a gap to drive through after a screen. However, being too eager, he first gathered the ball in one-two steps, then moved his feet three-four steps, and then, with Artest, who had the opportunity to help defend, in front of him, he pulled off an astonishing jump-five... If the rules of the basketball world hadn't changed, this five-step layup shouldn't have happened. But since it did, even a top-tier wing defender like Artest, who had won DPOY, could only watch in awe.
Zack didn't know if the NBA would change the gathering step rules in the future. But even under the later gathering step rules, James's "American football layup," which the referees automatically ignored, was still somewhat ridiculous.
"How the hell can you allow him to drive like that? Even Michael Jordan couldn't defend that shot!" Artest yelled at the main referee who ignored James's travel. Artest had every reason to be angry. He had been fully prepared to jump and block James's layup. But he never expected that James, who had already dodged him once with a three-four step move, had another trick up his sleeve beyond the atmosphere. When his defensive rhythm was disrupted, no matter how quick Artest's reaction, it was hard to stop James's rampant progress on the court.
Fortunately, on the return play, Zack used a standard catch-and-three-step layup to get some revenge for Artest. On the court, pointing at Zack, Artest continued to complain to the referee, "This is the damn standard three-step layup! If you blind idiot can't see it, I can explain it to you frame by frame!" Perhaps feeling guilty, the main referee officiating that night did not give Artest a technical foul as a warning, despite his incessant complaints. In turn, James, who was accused of traveling by Artest, used a limited-edition hesitation step to once again freeze Artest.
In the moment James faked him out, Artest stood still like a wooden stake. But he smiled. The next second, watching James fly into the paint and finish, Artest, smiling like a child, kept twisting his wrist back and forth. Are there really rules in the world of basketball? If so, why was James able to carry the ball and perform a hesitation step just now?
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### End of First Quarter: A Messiah's Performance
In the final moments of the first quarter, it wasn't until Zack briefly held the ball again and then executed a double-crossover, hitting his 26th point of the game with an elegant shot from the right 45-degree angle, that Artest finally realized why Zack's nickname was "Messiah." "This guy must have come specifically to save the sport of basketball!"
26 points in a single Finals quarter. On TNT, Barkley exclaimed about Zack's scoring explosion, "I have a stat I want to share with you, and you might not believe it, but in the first quarter tonight, the Messiah's offensive possession time was only 38 seconds." After a pause, Barkley added, "He showed us an unprecedented way to score. In my long and legendary career, and my brief but still great commentating career, I've never seen a player like him."
Actually, compared to top-tier off-ball movement masters, Zack's off-ball attributes weren't top-notch, aside from pick-and-rolls. Originally, to ensure he got shot opportunities on the court, Malone had even designed a lot of advanced off-ball tactics for him before the game. But James's overly outstanding off-ball defense rendered those advanced tactics useless. Furthermore, during the game, the Cavaliers players, who had already lost three straight games, had their morale completely shattered, indirectly providing Zack a stage to perform.
This was an off-ball performance influenced by numerous objective factors. Zack wouldn't consider it a true reflection of his abilities. However, Zack, who was having a blast, thoroughly enjoyed the process. Just like his second conquest of Los Angeles night, Zack admitted that he did get those 71 points thanks to Chris Mihm and that sudden surge of in-game form. But so what? Who says Zack doesn't like stat-padding, doesn't enjoy the happiness that stats bring him?
"One quarter and eight minutes left." He just had his unwavering bottom line.
In the second quarter, Zack didn't play for the first four minutes. This was his valuable "charging" time. A lot of off-ball movement was indeed a huge drain for a 6'11" big man like him. Even if he played three offensive possessions and then coasted for two, this was an objective law of the basketball world that he couldn't resist.
From the sidelines, recharged, the Warriors requested a substitution at the scorer's table. At the Quicken Loans Arena, Zack's return finally brought life back to the otherwise lifeless arena. Warriors fans, scattered in different sections, uniformly chanted "MVP, MVP" for him. James, who no longer knew what to do to stop Zack, started biting his thumb again. In this game, the merciless Zack had caught James completely off guard. And James's current panic stood in stark contrast to his pre-game boasts.
Cavaliers players realized that LeBron James—the one who proactively asked for more outside shots before the game, the one who tried to grab more defensive rebounds to initiate fast breaks, the one who forced teammates to shoot decisively after receiving his passes, the one who coerced the coach into double-teaming Zack, the one who kept telling them that the Cavaliers still had a chance to turn things around under his leadership—was, in fact, just a 22-year-old kid. Shock, panic. Confusion, fear. Humans, while infinitely complex, can sometimes be remarkably simple.
On the Cavaliers' bench, looking at the helpless James, Gooden suddenly spoke, "Let me guard the Messiah. I'm good at off-ball defense." Was Gooden good at off-ball defense? The answer was clearly no. But at this moment, singing a hymn of loyalty, Gooden, with his dedication, pulled James back from the abyss he was about to fall into.
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### The Mercy of the Messiah: A City's Despair
On the court, it was the Warriors' offensive possession. Looking at Drew Gooden who had suddenly switched onto him, seeing the Cavaliers fans who, despite their silent tears, hadn't left, even the most stone-hearted person couldn't help but feel sorrow and lament for Cleveland, this city of failure. Cleveland, in its yearning for a heroic savior, had bestowed unprecedented adoration upon "The Chosen One." Even with the apocalypse seemingly upon them, Cavaliers players, led by Gooden, were still protecting the young king who was supposed to lead them forward.
Former Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund, the blind owner who was tragically betrayed by Carlos Boozer because he was too kind, once said that only by reading Cleveland's sports history can you understand how desperately this city yearns to be saved. And only by understanding Cleveland's past and the Cavaliers' history can you understand the immense damage caused to this city by that earth-shattering "The Decision" in Zack's memory.
Now, at this very moment, Zack, always eager to help, decided to help Cleveland face reality in his own way—his good friend was never the savior of this city of failure. From the top of the key, Zack, as swift as a leopard, easily dribbled past Gooden's defense. It was like a gentle breeze. Gooden, who was swept by it, turned his head and saw Eric Snow already under the basket, resolutely ready to die.
Snow shouldn't have been there. But he was. Snow was just a 6'3" point guard. He had many reasons not to be in the paint. But after noticing James's indifferent defense, Snow bravely put himself in the Cavaliers' paint. As Zack soared, Snow didn't flinch. He raised his arms, which could never have interfered with Zack in any way. Unlike many players who didn't want to play for the Cavaliers, Snow, born in a small Ohio town called Canton, loved Cleveland the most. Throughout his career, Snow was known for his tough defense. But his defense was neither dirty nor did it involve any subtle fouls. So, when Zack's massive body crashed into him, Snow calmly accepted it all.
BOOM! The next second, Snow was driven out of bounds by Zack. It was a thunderous two-handed dunk, no less impactful than a prime Shaq. Then, Snow calmly got up from the floor, his expression unchanged. And then, with his eyes full of fighting spirit, he told Zack: "Cleveland, not everyone will kneel before you, the King. At least, I, Eric Snow, will fight for this city until the last second."
The bloody slaughter of Cleveland by Zack continued in the second quarter. To prevent him from easily scoring, Gooden had already picked up his fourth foul before halftime. On the court, it was the Warriors' offensive possession. Watching Sasha Pavlovic actively rotate onto him, Zack backed him down, then spun around for a layup, increasing his personal score for the game to 44 points.
At halftime, the score was 70-41. The Warriors, who had already dug the Cavaliers' grave in Game 1 of the Finals, were now just one half away from officially holding their "funeral."
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### The Crushing Blow: More Records Fall
After halftime, James hit two consecutive three-pointers for the Cavaliers. Artest, who had been "scared" of his drives in the first half, decided to let him shoot. So, James responded to Artest's defense with those two "cold arrow" threes.
"I admit it, he's definitely harder to guard than Kobe," Artest said, looking frustrated on the court.
On the return play, it was the Warriors' ball. After increasing his personal points for the game to 48 with 4 free throws, Zack, who had missed his previous two shots, decisively cut to the basket using a teammate's screen. Seeing this, Davis delivered a brilliant pass, helping Zack score his 50th point with a one-handed dunk. On TNT, Barkley couldn't help but exclaim, "He's redefined scoring for me. The Cavaliers' proud defense is as brittle as paper against him." Smith nodded in agreement, "I think he's once again proven that he has historical-level playoff scoring ability."
On the court, as Zack, who had already scored 50 points for the Warriors, crossed half-court again, a human cub no older than five years old suddenly let out a heartbreaking wail! This young fan, wearing a Cavaliers No. 23 jersey, might not yet understand basketball. But he clearly understood that the devil in the Warriors' No. 30 jersey was wantonly tormenting his home team.
Slam! The next second, using Brown's screen, cutting down the middle, Zack received the ball, raised it high with one hand, and scored his 52nd point with a "King Raising the Cauldron" dunk. In the stands, the previously quiet home crowd clearly resonated with that wail. The live close-up immediately showed individual Cavaliers fans openly weeping. Barkley commented on this, "This is perhaps the most heartbreaking and sorrowful Finals journey in NBA history."
Two possessions later, Zack, using a double screen from Brown and Artest, hit his 55th point of the game from the left 45-degree angle. On the Warriors' bench, at this moment, compared to the joy of an impending back-to-back championship, all the players instinctively straightened up, anticipating Zack's next score. Unlike last year's first championship, since the Warriors believed the Cavaliers posed no threat, they had been ready for back-to-back titles ever since Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
From the sidelines, casually taking a cup of coffee from an assistant coach, Mike Malone, equally ruthless and unsympathetic to the fans present, chuckled, "Coffee is indeed better for appreciating this kind of one-sided slaughter."
At the Quicken Loans Arena, Zack then hit his 57th and 59th points with two catch-and-shoot pull-ups. Elgin Baylor's 61-point Finals record from 1962 was within reach. Commentators from around the world held their breath, ready to announce a new NBA Finals single-game scoring record to the basketball world at any moment.
Zack didn't make the fans, experts, and journalists wait long for this moment. After James hit a somewhat lucky bank shot three from the top of the key for the Cavaliers, Davis brought the ball across half-court. Zack, who had pulled up near the mid-court logo to receive the ball, initially wanted to use his signature on-ball double-crossover to shake off Varejao. But the moment Zack signaled his teammates to clear out his side of the court, feeling his heart pounding, he suddenly changed his mind. So, after signaling to Brown for the last time that he didn't need a screen, Zack, standing on the Quicken Loans Arena mid-court logo, immediately gathered the ball and pulled up for a shot.
Barkley, seeing Zack's shooting motion, immediately covered his head and exclaimed, "This is absolutely insane!" And whether out of sadness or sorrow, the Cavaliers fans, currently immersed in grief, also believed that Zack's three-point attempt made absolutely no sense. But Angelenos wouldn't be unfamiliar with this scene. Because this consistently cruel devil had used this horrifying method to finish off opponents on the night he tore the Lakers fans' souls apart for the second time.
Swish! At the Quicken Loans Arena, as reason was shattered and souls were torn, Charles Barkley announced to the entire U.S.: "The Messiah has officially surpassed Elgin Baylor at this very moment! He has utterly pulverized the city of Cleveland with an intercontinental missile shot from the moon!"
The third quarter wasn't even over, and Zack had already scored an incredible 62 points! And get this: when Zack scored his 62nd point, the Cavaliers' entire team had only scored 57 points for the night. If Rich Paul's earlier advice had reignited James's fighting spirit and helped him find a way to engage in that great competition with Zack, then in that instant, all of James's grand ambitions were mercilessly stripped away by Zack. When Zack hit that intercontinental missile, James was standing at the best vantage point. He witnessed Zack incinerate Cleveland. He personally participated in the entire process of Zack pulverizing the city. That moment confirmed to James that Zack was destined to be an insurmountable peak. And the game itself made James feel an unprecedented powerlessness and deep despair.
After that, the game continued. Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown chose not to torture his starters, pulling all of them after the third quarter.
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### Champions Again: The Aftermath
On the Warriors' bench, upon learning that Zack wouldn't be playing in the fourth quarter, Kwame Brown jumped in frustration, "This is the Finals! You can't waste your best form. Trust me, you have a chance to set an unprecedented record tonight!" Hearing this, Zack, who had scored 67 points in just three quarters for the Warriors, even casually breaking Michael Jordan's NBA playoff single-game scoring record, simply said as usual, "I have done my job excellently; I will not play in garbage time." Everyone has their principles. Even in the Finals, Zack would not go against his principles. In Zack's view, stats accumulated in garbage time carried no honor whatsoever. Even if such stats were acknowledged by the world, he himself wouldn't recognize them. And after a pause, Zack didn't forget to remind Brown, "Who told you my form tonight was at its best?"
"..."
Zack didn't play in the fourth quarter. But the records he set in the first three quarters of Game 4 of the Finals had already triggered an unprecedented earthquake in the basketball world. All fans were curious what kind of record Zack could have set in the NBA Finals if he had played in the fourth quarter that night. This was a game that would undoubtedly be revisited repeatedly in the future. However, when the fourth-quarter buzzer sounded, compared to the memorable moments in the game, the Warriors players, who had just secured their back-to-back championship in Cleveland, were clearly the main characters.
Final score: 134-89.
The Warriors, with a total net margin of 155 points over four Finals games, won the NBA championship for the second consecutive year with a 4-0 sweep! Roughly four thousand kilometers away at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Warriors legend Rick Barry passionately roared, "We are world champions! We are world champions again! We are always world champions!"
Putting down the coffee cup he had held for an entire quarter, Malone excitedly rushed to Zack and embraced him deeply, "Damn it! You easily made me a champion coach. How am I supposed to improve after this?"
"Mike, you still have a lot of room for improvement." With the Finals over and the resentment completely purged, Zack finally emerged from that crazy state. "Next, you can aim for Phil Jackson." Malone said disdainfully, "That old geezer was just lucky!" Although Jackson, as the highest mountain among active NBA coaches, already held nine championship rings, Zack noticed that in this era, it was hard to find a coach who actually agreed with him. Almost every coach, when talking about Jackson, simply attributed his success to coaching Jordan, O'Neal, and Kobe.
Zack wasn't interested in discussing with Malone whether Jackson was just lucky. After embracing Malone, he immediately turned to join the championship celebration that had already begun.
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### The Aftermath: Tears, Legacy, and a Declaration
And what about the players of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the owners of the Quicken Loans Arena? Eric Snow, who always prided himself on playing for Cleveland, calmly accepted everything, only beginning to cry openly after returning to the locker room. Human strength and fragility often exist in a single instant. As the Cavaliers became the backdrop for the Warriors' renewed reign, as Snow, like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot, could not narrow the score gap on the court no matter how hard he tried... Snow's tears were both a microcosm of the city of Cleveland and an outpouring of the bitterness in his heart.
After being swept by Zack's team in the Finals for two consecutive years, Shaquille O'Neal, reflecting on the past, couldn't help but feel a touch of sadness for himself. Throughout the Finals, over four games, O'Neal, who averaged only 10.5 minutes per game for the Cavaliers, performed, if not mediocre, then at least unremarkable. O'Neal's past glory and brilliance, after being swept by Zack's team for two consecutive years, seemed so pale and powerless at this moment. The league's previous flag-bearer had his power seized by the new flag-bearer in what was almost a "shattering fracture."
Mo Williams was already in tears when shaking hands with the Warriors players. "Mo," traded to the Cavaliers from Milwaukee, didn't yearn for big cities like other players in the league. After coming to Cleveland, he hoped to turn Cleveland's fate around with his teammates. Throughout the Finals, he resolutely carried out the tasks given to him by the coach and "The King." But he was powerless to rewrite the story's ending for this Cavaliers team.
As a veteran for the Cavaliers, when Zydrunas Ilgauskas noticed the Cavaliers fans who lingered in the stands, unwilling to leave, his eyes turned red, and he suddenly felt an inexplicable desolation. Big Z knew that Cleveland's already tragic sports history had been given a heavy, dark stroke by Zack and the Warriors tonight.
As for the "Chosen One" of this city? After the game, when shaking hands with Zack, James, who forced a smile and congratulated him on the back-to-back championship, immediately heard what Zack said to him.
"..."
When Zack looked him in the eye and uttered those words, James instinctively felt an unspeakable fear. James did not give any interviews after Game 4 of the Finals. After showering, he hastily left the arena where the championship ceremony was being held.
Meanwhile, the Warriors players, led by Zack, returned to the locker room, changed into their championship T-shirts, and lifted the championship trophy—the symbol of the NBA's highest team honor—at the Quicken Loans Arena. Veterans Adonal Foyle, returning home, and Matt Barnes, who joined last summer, were the two Warriors players most emotionally moved during the trophy presentation.
Last year, Zack, who had walked around the court with his hands in his pockets in Miami, replicated this gesture at this year's FMVP award ceremony. At center court, as he walked towards David Stern with his hands in his pockets, exuding defiance, the league commissioner could only earnestly advise him, "You are now the face of the league; your every move will be magnified by the outside world. You need to be more mindful of your image from now on." Hearing this, Zack said, "I have always strived to be a good role model for future generations; I have always been a player of excellent character." At this moment, Stern's expression was extremely complex as he looked up at the young player who was about to wear the "GOAT" halo.
Zack dominated this year's Finals with commanding averages of 40.5 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists, 2 blocks, and 1.5 steals, and was unanimously named FMVP. Thanks to the Cavaliers' insane double-teaming tactics in Game 3, even when Zack fully committed to personal offense in Game 4, he could easily produce a jaw-dropping stat line like a Finals "40+ triple-double." And with the Cavaliers' indirect assistance, he also successfully added the NBA playoff single-game scoring and single-game assist records to his collection in this year's Finals.
At this moment, no one would doubt that the new Basketball God had been born in Cleveland. In this city of failure, Zack, with his unquestionable dominance, fully demonstrated to the world the great achievements he had created in his first two professional seasons.
On TNT, Barkley asserted, "Even if he retired right now, he would be in the top ten all-time in NBA history." Smith nodded, "He achieved at 23 what Michael Jordan achieved at 29... I can't even imagine his future."
In the visitors' locker room, Baron Davis, who had completely burned out for the Warriors during this year's playoffs, led the cheers, "We have to do this again next year!" Artest immediately echoed, "We definitely have to do it again! How can we leave such beautiful nights for others?"
"The Bad Drunkard" Chris Mullin, who always had a good relationship with the players, felt like he was living a dream. However, compared to the future, Mullin wanted to focus on the present. Having more time to prepare this year, Mullin had already worked with his colleagues in Oakland to organize a grand triumphant return ceremony and championship parade for the Warriors.
For now, they would enjoy the glorious championship moment. Then, Mullin would also have to do his best to retain the championship core while strengthening the team's current roster. Mullin knew that the Warriors' back-to-back championship would undoubtedly stir up an even bigger storm this summer. After all, no team would willingly stand by and watch the Warriors build a dynasty.
After the commotion subsided, Zack, with his second career FMVP trophy, sat down for an interview with Ira Berkow. Berkow was curious what Zack had said to James after the game that caused James to rush out of the Quicken Loans Arena without accepting any interviews. To this, Zack calmly replied, "I just told him, 'It's mine now, and it'll be mine in the future too.'"
"It's mine now. It'll be mine in the future too." Berkow felt this was exactly the answer he wanted. Because it meant the NBA's new GOAT had delivered the most dominant declaration to the entire basketball world!
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