This is what he came back for.

When LeBron James penned the famous letter noting his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, it was with the goal of getting the team a title. The city has dealt with failure numerous times, in the worst way. The painful memories torturing local fans across all three teams have been enough to literally fill an ESPN documentary.

James wanted to bring an end to it all. To finally bring a Cleveland team to a championship series and show fans what it looks like when it ends on a positive note. He wanted to show Northeast Ohio that not every sports moment ends in misery.

Somehow, facing impossible odds as a member of a team everyone (including myself) left for dead, he’s come to that moment. The Cavs, once down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors, are now one win away from a championship. On Thursday night at least, it was almost solely thanks to the greatness of James.

This isn’t to discredit the help from Cleveland. While there wasn’t really a balanced stat-sheet, he got 23 points from Kyrie Irving. He received clutch three-pointers from J.R. Smith. He watched as Tristan Thompson obliterated the Warriors down low with a monstrous 15-point, 16-rebound performance.

At the end of the day, though, Game 6 was James’ show.

41 points. Eleven assists. Just one lone turnover. In front of quite possibly the loudest crowd to ever take in a game at Quicken Loans Arena, James was just too much for Golden State.

While the stats alone are impressive, it was the overall impact James brought to the game that pushed the Cavs over the top.

James knew Golden State didn’t have an answer for his drives. When he faced single coverage, he blew by whichever Warrior attempted to guard him. When they tried to throw bodies at him, he picked them apart with alley-oops to Thompson.

While the Cavs held leads of 22 and 24 points at certain points of the night, Golden State kept coming. The deficit shrunk to single digits multiple times. Earlier in the series, these runs seemed to rattle James. He and the rest of his teammates would start to visibly panic, throwing up bad shots and just looking shook up.

Not this time. While Cleveland’s offense screeched to a halt at the end of the third, thanks in part to James’ exhaustion forcing him to shank long jumpers, Golden State could never get close enough to take the game back.

The fatigue James dealt with was so apparent to start the fourth quarter, but somehow it didn’t matter. As gassed as he was, he just kept pushing. He could’ve kept hoisting jumpers, but instead chose to keep driving. While the Warriors likely saw a glimmer of hope when James’ jump-shot stopped falling, it was dashed by low-post dominance and an emphatic block on Steph Curry.

As a result, the city of Cleveland is seeing its best chance at a title since the 1997 Cleveland Indians. For the first time in franchise history, the Cavs are within one victory of a title.

It’s all thanks to James once again willing his team to get to this point. He has more help this time around, but he’s still happily proving to anyone who thought he was past his prime that they might be just a bit off-base.

Game 7 is Sunday night, and it won’t be easy. The Warriors, while lacking momentum, return to a building they barely ever lose in. They’ll still be the odds-on favorite, still viewed by many as the greatest regular season team of all time.

However, because of James, the Cavs are in a position to make Golden State’s regular season dominance meaningless. Cleveland, expected by many to be golfing by now, has a shot to put an asterisk on the Warriors’ campaign.