I know it’s happened and this is probably the least interesting post ever but when I reflect on recent NBA history, it is still shocking to me what happened that year. I never thought it would be remotely possible. It was just a record that could never be touched.
And yet it really happened. I don’t think it gets enough credit because of the “it don’t mean a thing without the ring” piece but as time passes, I gotta say it’s just a standalone incredible achievement.
The fact that the last 30 games of the season they were the target for every team, no one wanted to see them do it, and they still did it. It’s incredibly impressive.
I take your point, but I have an issue with calling a team “massive favourites” to win the finals if they lost the previous year and will have to get through the same team the next year. Maybe they were favourites, but I think massive favourites is a stretch.
I don’t think you can isolate Lebron and Kyrie’s over-performance, KD and Steph’s underperformance, and Draymond’s suspension. At the time, it would have been reasonable to suspect that those same dynamics might repeat themselves in the 2017 finals.