NBA Finals Preview: Who has the most at stake?

The 2017 NBA Finals will be the first time in NBA history that two teams have met three years in a row. In 2015, the Golden State Warriors won their first NBA title since 1975. Last June, the Cleveland Cavaliers won their first title in franchise history. It was also the first professional championship in Cleveland since the 1964 NFL Championship won by the Cleveland Browns. Now we get to see the rubber match.

This has been the best-of-seven series that NBA fans have hoped for, frankly, since last June. This year’s NBA Finals are about one thing and one thing only: legacies. Basketball Hall of Fame tickets will be punched. The upper echelon of historical NBA hierarchies will be shaken. Legends will be made, while others’ reputations will be forever tarnished.

Of all the players on these two juggernaut basketball teams, who has the most to gain from a 2017 NBA Finals win?

Read More: After ‘The Stop,’ Kevin Love is a different player

If we examine Cleveland, back-to-back NBA Championships would certainly improve the legacies of all players on the roster, but these four in particular: LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. We could also extend the notion to a second NBA title significantly improving the legacies of Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue and general manager David Griffin.

For James, it’s painfully obvious. If he defeats the Warriors in back-to-back seasons, James would creep ever closer to passing Michael Jordan. A fifth NBA title or an eighth and ninth appearance would probably put James past Jordan, assuming he wins it all in 2017. That perfect record of Jordan’s will always be held over LeBron, but if James beats two of the greatest teams in NBA history, that’s nothing. LeBron and Jordan will be argued about forever, but this win would push LeBron past anyone else and be a serious resume-builder for the Jordan comparisons.

A second NBA Championship, and we met be ready to start talking about Irving’s future enshrinement in Springfield. He’d probably need at least two more All-Star appearances and make one more All-NBA team to make that a certainty. Barring rapid decay at the end of his career, a second title pushes Irving into that “future Hall-of-Famer” territory, especially with the way his individual numbers have accumulated. At a minimum, we could stop (or at least quiet) the arguments about where Kyrie ranks among the best point guards in the Eastern Conference.

For Love, a second title probably solidifies his Basketball Hall of Fame legacy as well. The overall body of work he first did as the best player on a bad Minnesota Timberwolves team and as the third-best player on two NBA Championship teams would be enough to start talking about him in the same way. We can also forever shed the “Love isn’t a winner’ nonsense.

Though Thompson has never made an All-Star Game or an All-NBA team, assuming he dominates on the glass and averages a double-double in the Finals, the chance his No. 13 jersey hangs in the Quicken Loans Arena rafters when he inevitably calls it a career. He becomes a Bill Laimbeer/Bruce Bowen type of player in Cavaliers lore.

A second straight NBA Finals win puts Griffin on the fast track to be a hall of fame executive. His work in Phoenix before this only adds to his legacy as a team builder, even though he did whiff on some huge picks in Cleveland. As for Lue, he honestly might be the next Erik Spoelstra. He will obviously need to coaching winning ball for the next eight years or so, but it’s hard to argue against all the good he has done for the Cavaliers in a year in a half.

Should Golden State win two out of three NBA Championships, six players and two coaches’ legacies will be impacted — Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green. Steve Kerr’s, and honestly Mike Brown’s, legacies also will be impacted by this best-of-seven series.

A second championship for Curry does something very remarkable. It would make him a top-three point guard all-time. These things are debated endlessly but Curry’s incredible individual stats and championship rings starts to move him past the Stockton’s, and Nash’s, and Curry’s and into the tier with Magic Johnson.

What a championship would do for Durant’s legacy is hard to digest. We will really only be able to decide that when it happens. It would perhaps soften the blow of him leaving Oklahoma City, or it could potentially make him even more hated, validating the animosity of his most vicious critics. Either way it probably cements him as one of the 20 or so best players to ever play the game.

Green becomes a Hall of Famer, as the best combination of Barkley and Dennis Rodman humanly possible. His volatility has been seen as a weakness of the Warriors and this should put to rest for good that his positives far outweigh his negatives.

Kerr’s legacy as a coach would be a strange one. Should Golden State win its second title while he is unable to coach, that could either hurt the perception of him as a coach, or reinforce his brilliance as the architect of a team that can survive without him. Brown becomes the best available NBA head coaching candidate if he wins it all as an interim. He will have a head coaching job within the calendar year.

Next: Finals Preview: What if… the Warriors sweep the Cavaliers?

While chasing Jordan would make James’ legacy the one we will inevitably examine all offseason, we would not be able to deny that Curry is now an all-timer with a second title. It may seems silly to spend so much time focus on perception and hypotheticals, but consider it preparations for the arguments you’re going to be having on Twitter all summer.