The Lakers have won their first championship in 10 years, beating Miami Heat in a six game series as Lebron James paid tribute to Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
The win signifies the 17th ring in the Lakers history and the fourth ring in Lebron James’ career who was also named the Bill Russell finals MVP after the series clincher making him the first player to win finals MVP with three separate teams.
Lebron left the game with 28 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists while fellow Laker Anthony Davis finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds. The first quarter of the game was a tight affair with the Lakers going up 28-20 after the first 12 minutes and followed through by pulling away in the second quarter, limiting Miami to 16 points while scoring 36 of their own to take the score to 64-36 at half time.
The third quarter remained tight and the Heat then looked to come back in the game scoring 35 points in the last quarter but the Lakers remained supreme, finishing the game and the series in the process.
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Speaking after the game, Lebron who was also the game’s MVP dedicated the victory to Lakers legend Kobe Bryant who tragically passed away in January.
He said: ‘I know he’s looking down on us proud of us. I know Vanessa is proud of us, the organisation is proud of us. It means a lot to us.”
“It’s a tough moment, man. He was a big brother to all of us. We did this for him. If we weren’t already as close as we could be, that made us even closer. We got as close as you possibly can be, when that moment happened.
“Obviously we know it brought the whole basketball world close as well, but when you’re internal and it hits home, it just means that much more and we locked in from that very moment and said, ‘This is bigger than us'”.
The new NBA season will start on December 1 as the Lakers will look to defend their newly gained title.
