On Sunday, LeBron James claimed his third championship and third Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award.
Is LeBron also the overall playoff MVP? And did Steph Curry, the unanimous winner of the regular-season MVP, join LeBron on the list?
1. LeBron James
Cavaliers
SF
2016 playoff stats:
29.7 PPG | 11.3 RPG
The reality is that even if Kyrie Irving hadn't hit that 3-pointer over Curry and the Warriors had won the title, LeBron was the MVP of this postseason. His leadership, poise under pressure and incredible effort plays combined to get his team to believe in the impossible.
That's why we saw so many tears on the faces of so many Cavaliers after they won Game 7; in their minds they had pulled off a miracle, and it all started with players knowing it could happen because LeBron was on their side.
That's what was so powerful about Games 5 and 6, when LeBron delivered shot after shot when his team needed it most. The power of those two performances can't be overstated -- he scored 82 points in two elimination games against the team many experts touted as the best ever. After those two games, it wasn't hard to believe the Cavaliers could make one last miracle happen in Game 7.
Incredibly, LeBron looked at times on Sunday night like the 2011 version of himself in the Miami Heat's Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks. He was hesitant at first to shoot jumpers from any distance, but eventually he took over the game in all phases.
There's no doubt that Curry was the deserving MVP of the regular season, as he had a season for the ages. There's also little doubt in my mind that if any team in the world had to win a series, and they could choose either Curry or James based on what we just witnessed, LeBron would be the choice.
There will be questions about Curry for months, just as there were about LeBron after the Dallas upset. That's how bad Curry was in the final few games and for much of the series. For LeBron, it is icing on the cake that he gets to sit on his throne while watching Curry take criticism in the same way LeBron did after his failures.
2. Kyrie Irving
Cavaliers
PG
2016 playoff stats:
27.1 PPG | 3.9 APG
I don't see it as a coincidence that James had his first 41-point performance in these Finals on the same night Kyrie had his own 41-point effort (James has five 40-point games in the Finals in his career). They are connected. Just as the Cavs needed to believe in LeBron's capabilities, LeBron needed to believe in someone on his team. He knew the Cavs were not going to pull off the comeback from a 3-1 deficit on his scoring talent alone.
That's why Kyrie's incredible Game 5 performance was so critical to LeBron's. He scorched Curry -- and whoever else attempted to guard him -- with shot-making skills equal to almost anything we saw all season from talents like James Harden and Curry.
Irving's offense seemed to inspire his defensive intensity. He got multiple steals in five of the seven games of the Finals and had one steal in each of the other two games. And despite blocking shots in only six games this postseason heading into Game 4 of the Finals, Irving recorded at least one block in the final four games of the series.
Kyrie and LeBron fed off each other, and Kyrie showed the ability to score dynamic buckets in key parts of games against an elite defense. His 3-pointer over a contesting Curry in the final minute of Game 7 will go down in Cleveland history, and if the Warriors end up receding back to the pack a bit after this collapse, that shot may become even more symbolic.
No player has gone from maligned to revered more quickly than Irving. Don't forget, when the Cavs were down 3-1, there were league insiders who strongly believed it wasn't just Kevin Love that could be shown the door after the season -- Irving and his awful defense were being called out, too. But those memories have been quickly washed away.
3. Draymond Green
Warriors
PF
2016 playoff stats:
16.5 PPG | 10.3 RPG
Curry was nowhere near his usual level of play in this series. Klay Thompson was good, perhaps very good at times, but he still needs things created for him more than most prolific scorers do. Green was by far the Warriors' best and most important player in their three wins and, unless voters had chosen LeBron in defeat, would have been Finals MVP if the Warriors had won Game 7.
Green becomes the fulcrum on offense when teams shadow Curry aggressively, as Green can make plays for himself or create for others in fluid fashion. And we know he is their best defender, guarding almost every player or position with length, power and effort.
But Curry alone cannot wear the goat horns of these Finals. It was Green's lack of discipline in drawing a flagrant foul and thus missing Game 5 that will haunt this franchise until it wins another title.
Considering that only three franchises (Spurs, Heat, Lakers) have won more than one title since Michael Jordan's Bulls did so, it isn't wise to assume the Warriors will pick up where they left off in April. All the more reason why Green's blunder in Game 4 will live in infamy. We can't ignore the incredible effort he made in Game 7, but we can fairly assume it will largely be forgotten since the Warriors lost.
Green undoubtedly had to be worried that this nightmare scenario could unfold as he sat and watched Game 5, and it did.