The New Jersey Nets and the Cleveland Cavaliers had identical records by the end of the 2004-2005 regular season. With 42 wins and 40 losses the Nets and Cavs were tied for 8th place in the Eastern Conference, the tie breaker would go to the Nets as they had a better record against the Cavaliers during regular season play. It would be the second post-LeBron year in a row that Cleveland failed to make the playoffs. Somewhere on the Nets bench sat Alonzo Mourning, not playing much and hoping to get as far away from New Jersey as possible.
That same season the Seattle Supersonics faced the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. The likes of Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, and Antonio Daniels graced the Sonics roster. Lewis sat out injured and watched as his team lost the series in 6 games. He and Allen would see LeBron James and the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili Spurs eight years later under much different circumstances. Antonio Daniels had already played for San Antonio notching 4 seasons with the team, one of which yielded a championship in 1999. He would also see LeBron James in the future.
LeBron would stay in Cleveland and the Cavaliers flourished into a premier team in the league. In the 2005-2006 season Cleveland clinched their first playoff berth since 1998. They disposed of the Washington Wizards in the first round and lost to the Pistons in the second. Antonio Daniels was on the 2005-2006 Wizards team as well as the 2006-2007 Wizards team that was swept in the first round by James' Cavaliers. That same season (06-07) James exacted revenge on the Nets first and the Pistons later. The Cavaliers reached the Finals only to be swept by the San Antonio Spurs.
Alonzo Mourning had returned to Miami by now but not before being traded to Toronto in 2004. Mourning never reported to the Raptors and they didn't care because a young power forward named Chris Bosh was blossoming in Canada.
Shortly after LeBron's first trip to the Finals, Ray Allen was traded from the Sonics to the Celtics where he would win two championships. In a game against the Raptors, Allen surpassed the 17,000 point mark for his career. Chris Bosh was on the court that night. Allen, the third member of the Celtics big three, helped defeat LeBron's Cavaliers in the second round of the 2007-2008 playoffs. The Celtics would go on to defeat the Lakers in the Finals that season and Ray Allen would get his first NBA Title. His former Sonics teammate Vladimir Radmanovic watched from the Lakers bench and Seattle lost its team to Oklahoma City.
A 66-16 record in the 2008-2009 season was the Cavaliers' best regular season effort ever. LeBron won Defensive Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards that season. James ended everything Pistons related with a sweep in the first round. Detroit has not made a playoffs appearance since the series against the Cavs. The next victim would be the Atlanta Hawks who were also swept. Both the Hawks and the Pistons lost every game to the Cavaliers by double digit points making LeBron's Cavs the first team to pull this off in the history of NBA Playoffs. Everything was rolling in the right direction with only the Orlando Magic in the way.
Rashard Lewis had played nine seasons with Seattle before signing on with the Orlando Magic in July of 2007. By 2009 Lewis had cemented himself as the second scorer on the Magic behind Dwight Howard (a future Laker). James and Lewis would meet in Florida for the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals with a trip to the Finals on the line. What better time than this to have Lewis hit the biggest shot of his career?
The Magic would go on to upset the Cavaliers in 6 games after a spectacular regular season by the latter. Los Angeles made quick work of the Magic in the Finals defeating them in 5 games and growing Kobe Bryant's ego and legacy.
Alonzo Mourning retired from the NBA after the 2009 Finals to take on a position with the Heat as Vice President of Player Programs and Development. The man from Miami who was never happy anywhere else had returned to stay.
The disappointment in Ohio turned into excitement in the 2009 offseason when the Cavaliers acquired Shaquille O'neal from the Phoenix Suns. Shaq was a 4 time champion and the Cavs had made it clear that they were seeking nothing less than a championship when he was bought on to join LeBron. With James' free agency in the midst Cleveland once again put together the best regular season record in the league. Antawn Jamison, a future Laker, was acquired in February of 2010 with the intent of building a deeper team.
Everything was in place for a successful playoff run and a Finals appearance. The Bulls were defeated in the first round in just 5 games. Of course, fate and sports play by no real rules nor do they care about who deserves what. Up 2-1 on the Celtics in the second round everything came crashing down. Ray Allen's big three plus Rajon Rondo went on to win the next three games and arrived at the Finals to play the Lakers. The building frustration of playing on a team that couldn't win a title drove LeBron to his nationally televised decision. Everyone loved the kid when he was on a hopeless team that never seemed to catch the breaks necessary to win NBA titles, and hated him when he abandoned ship.
James infamously joined Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami with the sole purpose of winning championships. Wade was with the Heat from the day he was drafted, something Mourning would have loved to do. Bosh followed Mourning's flight pattern from Toronto to Miami and LeBron thought he had finally arrived to the land of milk and honey.
What better way for LeBron to start from scratch with the Heat than to see one of his first foes in the NBA Finals? The closest James came to reaching the playoffs in the first two years of his professional career was the 2004-2005 season when the Nets had the slight upper hand in head to head encounters and took the 8th seed from the Cavs (as mentioned above). On the Mavericks team that defeated the Heat in the 2011 Finals was a guard by the name of Jason Kidd. He had also been on that 04-05 Nets team that summoned the 7 year stint of tough breaks for LeBron. Alonzo Mourning watched his former teammate obtain his first and only NBA Title.
Talking heads went insane after watching the Heat fail only to watch them succeed the following season. LeBron defeated the franchise from which two of his rivals had stemmed in 5 games. With Ray Allen's and Rashard Lewis' Sonics turned Thunder out of the way it made sense for the two to join James. Of course, this story would only be worth telling if it made sense with how it began, and it does. With Allen and Lewis by his side LeBron obtained his second NBA title from the Spurs in 2013. The same Spurs team that had swept his Cavaliers in 2007 and defeated the Allen/Lewis Sonics in 2005.
That is revenge.
The Cavaliers have the first pick of the 2013 draft and hope to one day exact revenge on their prodigal son.
P.S. Who needs books when you have stuff like this?
- Alex Moran
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