The NBA finals ended last night. There is no more real basketball to be played from now until late September. Both football and basketball are done, so this is the most dead period of sports that you can find right now. I'm counting down the days until college football starts. Baseball does not intrigue me, and everything else, Olympics included, bore me. With that being said, I will recount game 7 from the finals last night.

I, much like most writers, picked the Warriors to win. I picked them in 6 games. That, obviously did not happen. First things first, game 7 was phenomenal last night. For the most part, this series has been blow outs, and it has been not so great basketball. There were great individual performances, but the games, they were not that good. Game 7 changed that. I had no skin in the game last night, but my heart was beating fast and I watched every single second of that game with bated breath last night. It was a true back and forth. The Cavs would take a 5 or 6 point lead, then the Warriors would counter with a run and lead by 5 or 6 themselves. The game was decided by the stars as well. Sure, JR Smith made some big shots and Andre Iguodala did his thing on defense, but it was LeBron James and Kyrie Irving coming up big for Cleveland and it was Draymond Green, who was spectacular last night, and Curry and Thompson, although they both shot poorly. But, the stars made the difference. That's how I like my finals. Game 7 was everything I wanted this whole series to be, all the way down to Irving hitting that 3 with less than 1 minute left in the game.

Secondly, this series should have been over in 5 games. This is my "the NBA rigged this series" portion of my blog. Draymond Green did not deserved to be suspended for game 5. Yeah, he swiped at LeBron's man zone, and he did so much worse in the western finals against OKC, but it wasn't until LeBron bitched and moaned to the media and David Silver that they decided to suspend Green. I don't think it was the swipe, hell, I would have done something much worse than punch at a guy and call him names if he stepped over me on a basketball court, than it was the fact that the Cavs were down 3-1, the finals were getting record ratings, and LeBron used his stardom to get his way. David Silver, ESPN and ABC all wanted this series to go 7, if possible, and suspending Green did just that. The Warriors couldn't close it out in 5 because they couldn't stop James and Irving from getting in the paint and the Cavs pulled away. They then destroyed the Warriors in game 6, setting up last night's great game. Had Draymond not been suspended, the Warriors would have easily closed it out in game 5, but LeBron, the Cavs, and everyone in the media got their way and the series played on. Also, Steph Curry fouling out of game 6 was atrocious. In fact, the entire officiating crew in games 5, 6 and last night were as bad as the 2002 Lakers-Kings series. They were giving everything to Cleveland and nothing to Golden State. Curry hadn't fouled out of a game since college, but he somehow fouled out of a finals game. That is very, very fishy. The NBA has always had this shady cloud over it, but these last three games really made it almost too clear to me that the NBA may be as fixed as pro boxing and pro wrestling. It is becoming way too fascinated with the stars and they get so much better treatment from the refs than anyone else. It's disturbing.

Okay, got that off my chest.

Third, the Warriors did choke, but Cleveland also figured something out after Draymond got suspended. I won't say the Warriors lost the series, the Cavs definitely won. In game 5, they stayed big for most of the game, a la what the Thunder did. This rendered the Warriors rebounding useless. They had no one to block out Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson or even a guy like Richard Jefferson. The Cavs got so many second chance points and shots and that is how you beat the Warriors. They had no answer, especially after Andrew Bogut went down for the series. This was a smart move and it helped the Cavs win the title. Even last night, Love and Thompson seemed to grab every single rebound. They held the Warriors to one shot the majority of the night.  The Cavs also slowed the pace of the game to a snail. They held and held and held the ball in their half court set. They didn't seem to get into their set play until there were only 5 or 6 seconds left on the shot clock. This is another way to beat the fast paced Warriors. Make them play defense for all 24 seconds and it will slow their offense down because their players will get tired. Another smart move.

Which brings me to my fourth point. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, for the most part, did not show up in these finals. They both shot terribly from three. They were missing wide open three point shots that they had made all season long. It wasn't like the Cavs were playing lock down defense. Quite the opposite was happening. They would get held up on screens and leave shooter wide open, the Warriors just were not making their shots. Curry also got exposed as a very mediocre defender in the finals. He couldn't stay with Irving, he was too small and lean for LeBron, too short to guard JR Smith and when he had someone else, like Iman Shumpert, that guy screened and forced Curry to guard and he did not come through. And what on Earth happened to Harrison Barnes? He was so, so bad in the finals. He missed every shot he took it seemed. The Cavs would leave him wide open for corner threes, the easiest three and a shot he made all season, and he would brick it pretty much every time. This was supposed to be his coming out party. He was supposed to get a max contract from someone after the finals. He was going to be the man for another team next season if he left the Warriors. Now, I wouldn't even consider giving him anything close to a max contract. Not only was his offense atrocious, but he was man handled by pretty much everyone he guarded during the finals. Barnes had the worst possible finals that a free agent could have. He was worse in this series than Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert were, and they were both terrible. 

Then we have Kyrie Irving. Wow, was he great. He scored at will. He shot a very high percentage. No one on Golden State could stop him. He was just as important to this title win as LeBron was. Yeah, LeBron had a triple double last night, but without Irving in the third quarter and that three he hit in the fourth, no way does Cleveland win the title. Kyrie Irving was absolutely spectacular and he is rising very fast up the best players in the league chart right now. What an incredible performance he had.

Finally, LeBron. I have dogged him the whole season and during the playoffs. I still think he is a prima donna, a whiner and I'm fed up with his constant complaining to officials, but he did what he promised he would do for Cleveland. He delivered a title. He was great in games 5 and 6. He had a triple double last night. He was not good on defense, Draymond put up 30 plus on him last night, but he ran this team and they won because of his effort. This is, by far, the most impressive thing he has done in his very impressive career.

Congrats Cleveland. You guys won the title and proved a whole lot of people wrong in doing so. I'm very curious to see how this team looks next year, but for now, enjoy your victory, you guys earned it....with a little help from David Silver and the refs.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He says if Cleveland can get a title this year, then why not the Cubs? Get all of your winners by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.