Kevin Durant’s free agency decision swung the pendulum back in Golden State’s favor, and Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob knew it.
After the Warriors claimed their second title in three seasons on Monday evening with a 129-120 Game 5 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lacob saluted the 2017 NBA Finals MVP.
“Kevin, thanks for coming,” Lacob said, during a joyous postgame celebration at Oracle Arena.
The Warriors became the first Bay Area professional sports franchise to clinch a championship on their home soil since 1974, and Durant was the X-factor who helped lead Golden State to the promised land.
The 2014 NBA MVP elected to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder last July and pursue his first career championship with the Warriors, and on Monday, his dream was realized.
In an unforgettable 39-point, seven-rebound, five-assist effort on Monday night, Durant helped the Warriors seal up a championship, exact revenge on Cleveland and put the finishing touches on a Finals MVP resume that was already loaded with superlatives.
Durant’s 39-point effort capped off a five-game Finals stretch in which he scored at least 31 points in each game, and helped the Warriors knock off a Cleveland team that came back from a 3-1 series deficit to upend Golden State a season ago.
In Game 5, Durant tied his playoff career-high with five made three-pointers and scored his 39 points on just 20 shot attempts from the field. In comparison, Cavaliers’ star LeBron James needed 30 field goal attempts to finish with a game-high 41 points.
Durant’s first career NBA Championship comes in the 10th year of his professional career, and on the heels of an emotional offseason in which players, coaches, fans and media questioned his decision to part with the Thunder and join a Golden State team coming off a 73-win season.
But throughout the NBA Finals, Durant responded to those questions with an emphatic answer, and now, he’s a champion.