10. Mighty Casey Buries The Tigers 9. Cavs Clinch The #2 Seed
8. Trot Haunts BoSox in ALCS Thriller
7. Dawson's Lucky Bounce
6. Frye Trade, Anderson Promotion Turn The Browns Around
5. C.C. Sabathia Wins The AL Cy Young Award
4. LeBron's Game For The Ages Stifles Pistons
3. Browns Draft Thomas, Quinn, Wright
2. Tribe Takes Out The Yankees
1. Shoot Boobie Shoot!: Cavs reach the Finals
June 2
Exhausted from singlehandedly scoring 29 of the Cavaliers' final 30 points in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron James needed someone else to step up and shoulder the scoring load in Game 6 if the Cavs were to prevent a Game 7 back at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
He found those shoulders on the slight 6'-2" frame of Daniel "Boobie" Gibson.
Gibson score 19 of his career-high 31 points in the fourth quarter, including a quartet of dagger three-pointers, helping to quash any chance of a Pistons rally. The Cavs won the game going away, 98-82.
The death knell for the Pistons' 2006-07 season occurred with less than eight minutes to play when the always-temperamental Rasheed Wallace was nailed with a pair of technical fouls and automatic ejection for jawing with officials. Wallace continued his tirade as he stormed into the locker room tunnel, flinging off his headband in the process and allowing Cleveland fans a sense of payback for Wallace's previous crimes against the Cavs. It was Wallace who had opened up a huge gash in Zydrunas Ilgauskas' head during a regular-season game the year before, and had guaranteed a win against the Cavs in the second round of the 2006 playoffs.
Outside of The Q, a crowd of thousands, many of whom had finished watching an Indians game at Jacobs Field (against Detroit, ironically), had gathered to watch on large television screens as the Cavs made the game a matter of scoreboard mathematics: the Cavs' lead grew, the time on the clock shrank, and the crowd noise built to a crescendo.
When the final buzzer sounded, Cleveland had secured its first berth in a championship round since the 1997 Indians, and the scene outside The Q and Jacobs Field was New Year's Eve and Mardi Gras rolled into one.
During the Eastern Conference trophy presentation, coach Mike Brown coined a phrase which entered, however briefly, the Cleveland lexicon, and found its way onto a couple of thousand t-shirts:
"Shoot it, Boobie, shoot it!"
That night, as Cleveland celebrated, Boobie Gibson, a skinny rookie from Texas, joined LeBron as the toast of the town.