Cleveland, OH
Former Foes During Cavaliers-Warriors Finals Matchups Now Teammates
The NBA looked much different eight years ago.
Brandon Ingram and Jaylen Brown had just been drafted into the league, Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon saved the dunk contest, Kobe Bryant scored 60 points in a farewell game, and the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors routinely squared off in the NBA Finals.
Flash forward to 2024, and now two foes from those historic matchups are teaming up with one another, hoping to bring a championship to the Dallas Mavericks.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Klay Thompson is set to leave Golden State and is signing a three-year deal to team up with Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic in Dallas, creating the league’s newest big three.
BREAKING: Free agent Klay Thompson plans to join the Dallas Mavericks on a three-year, $50M deal with a player option, sources tell ESPN. Thompson ends his historic Warriors run as part of a multi-team sign-and-trade that’ll also send Josh Green to Charlotte. pic.twitter.com/4GJ5hR3H5o
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2024
Irving and Thompson each played an integral role in bringing champions to their respective teams in the late 2010s.
Irving will always be known for “The Shot” in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, which snapped Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought, and Cavs fans still have flashbacks of watching Thompson pulling up from deep in transition and automatically hitting a three.
Thompson was the Warriors’ best permitter defender during those matchups, so he found himself guarding Kyrie in many of those games. An elite scorer such as Kyrie and one of the game’s best stoppers in Klay made their head-to-head matchups a treat to watch.
Funny enough, it was even Thompson who said LeBron James “probably just got his feelings hurt,” which is what sparked Kyrie and the Cavs’ comeback from a 3-1 lead.
No matter what teams Kyrie or Klay are a member of for the rest of their career, they’ll still be tied to those Finals matchups from so many years ago.
For Cavs fans, seeing them as teammates playing alongside one another will definitely take some time to get used to. But the duo, along with Doncic, can potentially be one of the most dangerous lineups in the league next season.
The experience they gained playing against one another in those intense matchups could come back to help them each get back to the promised land of another NBA Championship.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Make that a trio of commitment in the Class of 2027 this week for the Louisville football program.
Cleveland (Oh.) Brush defensive end Munir Lewis announced Wednesday that he has committed to the Cardinals. He’s the third commit in the last four days for UofL, Bradenton (Fla.) Cardinal Mooney defensive lineman Kaleb Exume committing on Sunday and Tampa (Fla.) Carrollwood Day two-way athlete Brooklyn Maxey doing so on Monday.
Lewis chose Louisville out of a top seven that also consisted of Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Purdue. He also held offers from Cincinnati, Minnesota, Wisconsin plus several others, and made multiple visits to UofL’s campus – including this past Friday for the spring game. He’s set to return for an official visit this May.
The 6-foot-5, 245-pound defensive end is regarded as the 23rd-ranked prospect in the state of Ohio, the No. 50 edge rusher in the Class of 2027, and the No. 592 recruit in the nation, per the 247Sports Composite.
Lewis was an explosive force for Brush as a junior this past season. He collected 55 total tackles, 13.5 for loss, nine sacks, four pass breakup, a forced fumbles and over 20 quarterback pressures. He helped Brush finish the 2025 season with a 6-4 record.
Lewis is the 12th commitment in Louisville’s 2027 recruiting class, which is on pace to be the best in school history. he joins a class that not only ranks as the best class in the ACC, but the No. 8 class in the nation, per the 247Sports Composite. Four of their commitments are regarded as four-star prospects by the composite.
He’s also the latest in a budding pipeline to the state of Ohio, which has been championed by Executive Director of Football Personnel and Recruiting Vince Marrow. Five of Louisville’s 12 commitments in the 2027 cycle are from the Buckeye State, with three hailing from the Cincinnati area and the other two coming from Cleveland.
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