Consider all that has gone terribly wrong for the Cleveland Cavaliers since the end of the 2017 NBA Finals, an ignominious 5-game ejection by the hated Golden State Warriors.

Cavaliers’ ownership refused to keep David Griffin, the general manager who built the 2016 championship squad around LeBron James and had the superstar’s trust. The remaining front office, which would eventually become the permanent front office, started talking to other teams about a possible Kyrie Irving trade, or Kyrie quietly demanded a trade. (It remains in question what happened first.) The Cavaliers struck out on the Paul George trade derby. Eventually, they trade Kyrie to Boston for the valuable Nets pick, Isaiah Thomas, and Jae Crowder.

But wait! There was a hiccup because a deeper medical exam showed Isaiah’s hip was really trashed. So the trade was delayed while Cleveland decided whether to cancel it or try to milk another asset out of the Celtics. They went that route in the end. Isaiah missed the first three months of the season, and looked awful when he finally came back. Whoops.

Crowder struck out in Cleveland, too. The Cavaliers signed Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade to cheap deals — neither worked out in Cleveland. Tristan Thompson missed months with injury.

At the trade deadline, knowing the roster as constructed was vastly overmatched not just by the Warriors, but by a handful of other teams, the Cavaliers made two huge trades: one sending Isaiah and assorted parts out for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., the other shipped Crowder, Iman Shumpert, and parts for George Hill and Rodney Hood. That worked for a bit, but the Cavaliers never really captured any sort of wave down the stretch. Even Tyronn Lue had to miss nine games due to illness and exhaustion.

Cleveland finished with the No. 29 defense, ahead of only the Phoenix Suns. The Cavaliers slipped all the way to the No. 4 seed in the East, and they drew a shockingly potent Pacers team in the first round.

Cleveland survived that series, but did so with the third worst scoring margin for a winning team ever (-40). After a whimsical sweep of the Raptors, who are the greatest disappointment of all, the Cavaliers faced the very Celtics they had parlayed with back last summer. Kyrie was out, felled by a knee he once reportedly used as a ill-time surgery threat to convince the Cavs to trade him.

Cleveland lost two in Boston to start the series, lost Game 5 convincingly to go down 3-2, and in Game 6 lost Kevin Love to the concussion protocol. LeBron and the Cavaliers went into Game 7 with the NBA Finals on the line with these four players starting: Jeff Green, Tristan Thompson, George Hill, and J.R. Smith.

They still won, of course, because LeBron doesn’t lose Game 7s any more. They still made the NBA Finals, of course, because LeBron always makes the NBA Finals.  

If you hadn’t watched LeBron for the past 15 years, you’d scream “HOW?!” over and over after witnessing this achievement. But those of us lucky enough to witness his career understand.

We understand that it’s not just that he is one of the single greatest players ever in an individual sense. We understand how he has always been committed to keeping his teammates engaged and serving them up dinner every night. We could see on Sunday night in the post-game interviews how it grates on him to have his teammates’ efforts diminished and disrespected. The teammates see that. They have always seen that. And so he so often brings out the best in them.

He did it for Kyrie, who’d never been to the playoffs before LeBron came home and found himself in the NBA Finals three straight years playing with King James. He did the same thing for Kevin Love. He built a kinship with Jeff Green this year, and trusted him to play hard and smart. That payed off, as Green put up 19 points in a pinch in Game 7.

While we’re all out here screaming about how outrageous it is that LeBron is accomplishing all this with such a depleted, dilapidated supporting cast, LeBron is building up that group of hungry vets and wide-eyed kids into a functional unit that can help him do what is necessary to win.

The Cavaliers had a disaster of a year, full stop. Yet here they are, back in the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year. LeBron’s individual brilliance is, of course, a huge reason why.

But so is his devotion as a leader and great teammate. He’s been dinged for losing the faith of Kyrie to whatever extent he did, leading Irving to want out. If you discredit LeBron for that, you should ask Green, Love, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, and the others headed to the Finals what they think of James’ leadership.

This doesn’t mean playing with LeBron is easy — frankly, it all seems like a real circus. But if you eat what he’s cooking and buy what he’s selling, it tends to pay off with glory, no matter how messy the journey.

And this year’s journey sure was messy.