As Durant and his manager pondered ways to seek change, Link and the Memphis Grizzlies finally clawed their way out of the quagmire that was the Western Conference Finals.
Then, once again, Link and James, two great small forwards, stood on opposing sides.
Once again, they would face off in the Finals!
This was already the third straight year that Link and James had met in the Finals. Without a doubt, the first five years of the second decade of the 21st century belonged to Link and James.
Over five years, the two would combine for four championships. In three of those five years, they met in the Finals.
During the great "black-and-white rivalry" era of Bird and Magic Johnson, the two of them combined for only eight championship rings.
And now, Link and James had split four between them in just five years.
If Link and James could continue meeting in the Finals so efficiently, then without question, both of them would become symbols of this era.
The meeting of these two great stars drew the attention of the entire world. People had originally believed that whoever won the Western Conference title this year had essentially won the championship.
But when Link and James truly stood together, no one dared guarantee that Link would definitely win.
That was right. In last season's Finals, the Grizzlies swept the Heat 4-0.
But the Cavaliers were different from the Heat. The reason James chose to leave the Heat last summer was to challenge Link!
Everything he had done had one purpose—to beat Link just once!
The young Irving was in far better form than the aging Wade.
Though Love's stats had declined sharply this season, his consistency beyond the three-point line was better than Bosh's had been last season.
What was more,