The game clock in Boston last Thursday night struck zero and the Cleveland Cavaliers, after clinching a third straight trip to the NBA Finals, began embracing. In the visitor's locker room at TD Garden, the players yelled and jumped up and down and doused each other with water.
Meanwhile, almost 1,000 miles to the west, DeAndre Liggins sat with his girlfriend in his Chicago home and watched the celebration unfold on TV. Just two months earlier he was sharing a locker room with these same Cavaliers players. Then, with three games left in the regular season and following a morning walkthrough in the conference room of an Atlanta hotel, Cavaliers general manager David Griffin pulled Liggins aside.