The NBA Finals begin Thursday night in Oakland, a city in northern California. Last year, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA championship. It was the first major title for a Cleveland sports team since the 1960s. The year before, Golden State, based in Oakland, defeated Cleveland for its first championship since 1975. This year, the two teams will meet again for a chance to find out which one is really the best. Cleveland is led by one of the NBA’s all-time great players, LeBron James. He is playing in the Finals for the seventh-straight season. He is the first player to do that since the 1960s. The Golden State Warriors have Steph Curry, the league’s Most Valuable Player last year, and Kevin Durant, one of the NBA’s best players. The series is “best of seven,” which means the first team to win four games will be champion.