Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and centre Tristan Thompson celebrate. Photo / AP Photo
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and centre Tristan Thompson celebrate. Photo / AP Photo
NFL player Damarious Randall will have almost $16 million in career earnings if he sees out his contract with the Cleveland Browns.
But that's not going to cover even a third of what it will cost him to fulfil an outrageous Twitter promise ahead of the NBA Finals.
The former Green Bay Packers defensive back has such low expectations for the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors he tweeted this after the Warriors' game seven win against Houston in the Western Conference Finals.
If the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2018 NBA finals I’ll buy everyone who retweet’s this a jersey...
Jerseys cost around $100 so the 25-year-old is already on the hook for $58 million if LeBron James and the Cavs pull off a monumental upset.
Randall will be comforted by Jeff Van Gundy's prediction for the series. The former NBA coach says not even James can help the Cavaliers in this year's NBA Finals and is predicting they won't win a game against the Golden State Warriors.
Van Gundy says getting the Cavs to the finals is among the most impressive feats of James' career but the challenge that now awaits the game's greatest player may be more than even he can handle.
"It will be interesting to see how competitive LeBron James can make this Finals, but any game they get in this Finals would be a huge upset," former New York and Houston coach Van Gundy said.
"This is the biggest difference that I remember between two teams heading into the Finals in my time in the NBA. I can't think of a bigger gap from a team perspective."
The Cavs barely escaped a seven-game, first-round series against Indiana and then, after cruising past Toronto in four games, upset Boston in seven. Next up is a Warriors team that have won two of the last three NBA Finals.
The Cavs and Warriors are meeting for the fourth straight year for the right to be crowned NBA champions while it marks the eighth consecutive Finals appearance for James as part of a stretch that dates back to his stint in Miami. When the two teams met for the title in 2016, James led Cleveland back from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship, marking the first time an NBA team had pulled off such a comeback.
"Obviously James is going to have to be great … and they are going to have to be lights out from the three-point line to have a chance to win a game," said Van Gundy, the current USA national team coach.
He added that the only chance the Cavaliers have is if they can keep the high-scoring Warriors from reaching 100 points.
That is a tall order considering the defending champions have scored at least 100 points in 13 of their 17 playoff games.
Damarious Randall made a promise he can't keep. Photo / Getty Images
The Cavaliers will not be motivated by their underdog status, coach Tyronn Lue said.
The Warriors have been installed by Las Vegas bookmakers as heavy favourites but Lue says the fact the Warriors are most observers' pick for the title will not motivate his team.
"Our focus is winning championships, playing our best basketball," Lue said. "Our main focus is to win a championship. We can't worry about what outside guys are saying.
"I don't think we need motivation. Any time you get to the finals you're playing for a championship and that's motivation in itself. "We don't have to thrive on that. Being in this position is enough."
The Cavaliers reached the finals after a wild Eastern Conference series with the Boston Celtics, sealing victory in game seven on Sunday with an 87-79 win on the road.
The victory made Cleveland the first team to beat the Celtics at home during the postseason.
Lue said he believed the cornerstone of his team's success was defence. "I think we've grown," he said.
"We talk all season about getting better and better so that when we get to the playoffs we're playing our best basketball. I think defensively we've really turned the corner. We're been playing really physical, getting stops."
Lue believes also that his team may benefit from playing a gruelling seven-game series against Boston, stating that the team would be battle-hardened heading into game one.
"I think our whole team has to be aggressive. We can't use game one as a feel-out game. It's the first time we've come off a seven-game series in the finals and had only two or three days in between," Lue said. "Playing a game seven on Sunday in Boston will help us in game one."
