The Florida Gators basketball program continues togrow its list of championship products.
David Lee and Marreese Speights became the seventh and eighth Gators respectively to win an NBA Championship, the title coming for these two with the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals to capture the world championship making it five straight years that a former Gator has been on the championship team and the first duo since all of two years ago when Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller won a title together with the Miami Heat.
The Gators would have had a former member as a champion regardless of the outcome though as Mike Miller is a member of the Cavs.
Speights was used sparingly in the series with his biggest contribution coming in a Game 1 win when he went 4-8 in nine minutes. He finished the season averaging 10 points and four rebounds in 16 minutes.
Lee became a needed spark off the bench midway through the championship series.
Despite being a 10-year veteran and the Warriors highest paid player, Lee saw the bench more often than not during the season due to a hamstring injury which allowed him to only play one game in November and continued defensive woes.
After playing only 12 minutes total in the Western Conference Finals, he checked into Game 3 of the finals and put up 4-4 in field goals and 3-5 from the charity stripe while adding four rebounds and two assist. In a game where Golden State’s offense had been lacking, it was the flip of the switch they needed and head coach Steve Kerr took notice.
“Yeah, you’ll see more of David Lee,” Kerr promised after that game.“David was terrific,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr post-game. “[He] helped us — big time — get back into that game.”
Perhaps Lee’s biggest impact in Game 3 and in turn the series, was helping NBA MVP Steph Curry to get going. Curry was suffering from an uncharacteristic offensive drought until Lee came in to help his longtime teammate finish 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the fourth quarter.
Kerr commented afterwards, “What helped [Steph] was David playing so well as the role man. Steph was able to find David, and that softened [the Cavs’ defense] up a little bit.”
Lee went on to finish the Finals series with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Both Lee and Speights are further examples of Billy Donovan’s contained impact on the NBA as Donovan and the Gators have not only put close to 20 players in the league, but simultaneously put in guys that have had impressive longevity.
More important than any of the numbers though, David Lee and Marreese Speights are examples of a Gator legacy that continues to have an impact on championship teams.