Claim: LeBron James is in the NBA as a player.

The 2016 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association -LRB- NBA -RRB- 2015 -- 16 season and conclusion of the 2016 playoffs . The Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors 4 -- 3 in a rematch of the 2015 NBA Finals . It was the 14th rematch of the previous NBA Finals in history , and the first Finals since 2008 in which the number one seed in each conference met . It was the second straight rematch in back-to-back years , as the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs played each other in 2013 and 2014 .   Golden State , which earned home-court advantage with setting the NBA regular season wins record -LRB- 73 -- 9 -RRB- , jumped to a 2 -- 0 lead in the series while recording the largest combined margin of victory -LRB- 48 -RRB- through two games in NBA Finals history . Cleveland returned home and responded with a 120 -- 90 win in Game 3 , but the Warriors won Game 4 to take a 3 -- 1 series lead . The Cavaliers won the next three games to become the first team in Finals history to successfully overcome a 3 -- 1 deficit . It also marked the first time since 1978 that Game 7 was won by the road team .   The win by the Cavaliers was the first major professional sports championship won by a team based in Cleveland since 1964 , and the first-ever championship won by the Cavaliers franchise . NBA Finals MVP winner LeBron James propelled the Cavaliers to the historic comeback and secured his place among the all-time basketball greats .   For the first time since , a new scheduling format was instituted for the Finals . In previous years , the Finals were played in a Thursday -- Sunday -- Tuesday scheme . However , the league changed its scheduling to ensure an extra day off for both teams , which have to travel from one city to another during the series . This , along with the designated travel day , took place after Games 2 , 4 , 5 , and 6 .