Kevin Love gets honest about what makes the 2016 championship-winning Cavaliers special originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Over the years, the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers have become one of the most legendary teams in league history. They are the first and only team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals and win it. Considering they won that against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, it made it even more legendary.
Led by LeBron James, it was already an iconic team because of his star power. However, the rest of the team made sure that he had ample support, which has led to a lifelong bond that will continue to get stronger. As one of the most important members of that team, Kevin Love knows how meaningful it was.
Kevin Love speaks about why the 2016 championship team is still special
It has been 10 years since that legendary championship run, which led to some of the Cavaliers players reuniting and having a fun reunion. Of course, much has been said about Kyrie Irving's absence, but it is clear that the players still get on extremely well.
This could be said about most championship teams, but there are a lot of teams that have players who dislike each other. The most recent example of this is in 2022 with Draymond Green and Jordan Poole being members of the Warriors team that won, but they are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
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Love was one of the leaders from that 2016 team, and he is one of the biggest proponents of their special bond. The brotherhood remains strong even when a decade has passed since that win. They all struggled together, but they also succeeded together.
"I think this group is special. We have a very unique brotherhood. We all have different personalities. We all come from different backgrounds. When you go through trials and tribulations and especially adversity and come out of the other side, it makes you who you are when you do that together; that's what creates that true brotherhood," Love said about the 2016 team being close to each other.
To this day, the 2016 Cavaliers remain an iconic team. It will continue to be one of the most memorable teams in history, and with that, they are still strongly linked to each other despite their time playing together ended a long time ago.
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