OAKLAND, Calif. - If you would believe this, Dan Gilbert told LeBron James late Sunday night that he should run for president.

As a Republican.

Leaving party affiliation out of it for a moment, maybe Gilbert had a point. James did just fulfill the ultimate sports prophecy, delivering a championship to Cleveland after 52 years without one via an epic performance in the Cavs' 93-89 win over the Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

He could probably pick up a few votes.

"I said you know the Republican convention is tearing up the arena, you should insert yourself in now," Gilbert told Cleveland.com, in the wee hours of Monday morning after the Cavs had won the first championship in their 46 years in business.

"Maybe they want another candidate now," Gilbert continued. "He actually paused for a second. He looked up and I said hold on, the Constitution says you have to be 35 to run for president."

To set the record straight here, James is an ardent Democrat who campaigned feverishly in 2008 for Barack Obama and may, before it's all said and done, do something for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Gilbert, of course, operates the building where the Republicans will presumably nominate Donald Trump for president in July.

Gilbert, it would seem, believes nominating Trump is a mistake.

Winning the NBA Finals, as his team did Sunday night in Oakland, Calif., reminded him of the many past mistakes his franchise has made. James included.

"In today's world, social media, people get judged so much by the last thing that happened, I almost feel in a way, young people get to see that not only is it OK to fail, that's the way you get to championship success, whether it's sports or business or life," Gilbert said. "Everybody made mistakes for years, but by making them everybody learned, myself, the franchise, coaches, players, LeBron, everybody. And now, here we are, only because we learned."

That James was the one who led the Cavs to a historic upset of the Warriors in the Finals - which not only grave the franchise its first championship but the city's first in major pro sports since 1964 - immediately conjures discussions of James' legacy.

The man has now won three titles and three Finals MVPs (the latest in these 2016 Finals, in which he led both teams in points (29.7 points), rebounds (11.3), assists (8.9), blocks (2.3) and steals (2.6), and delivered a title to the region of his birth that hadn't won a darn thing since 1964.

Throw in that James' teams have gone to six consecutive Finals, the most in any sport over the last 50 years, the most in the NBA since Bill Russell's Celtics teams reeled off eight consecutive Finals in the late 60s, and James doesn't have to worry about his place among the very few - like, say Michael Jordan, maybe Russell, and James - greatest of all time.

James actually met Russell after Sunday's game, on the court, more than an hour after history was made. James is the first since Russell 50 years ago to lead his team to six consecutive Finals.

Last year, at The Q, Russell waited outside the Cavs' locker room to meet James following the Warriors' Finals-clinching win in Game 6. James was too distraught to take the meeting. Obviously, this time was different. James was feeling whole.

But the component of James' legacy that simply cannot be overlooked is his history with Gilbert, and the remarkable fact that these two men went through perhaps the messiest of professional divorces, and six years later are hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy together.

No Cleveland fan needs a reminder: James bolted the Cavs in free agency for the Miami Heat in 2010. Did it on ESPN in a primetime special. Gilbert responded with an incendiary email.

James wanted to return to the Cavs via free agency following the 2013-14 season, after having won two titles in Miami. He and Gilbert had to first bury the proverbial hatchet. They said then that bygones were just that, but nothing short of a championship would completely erase those hard feelings that developed between them.

Well, they have one now.

"That don't matter, that's yesterday's newspaper," James said, about those lingering feelings of anger from fans (not Gilbert) about 2010. "I don't think anybody's reading yesterday's newspaper. They'll be reading tomorrow that I'm coming home. I'm coming home with what I said I was going to do."

Indeed, James returned in the summer of 2014 with the stated goal of winning a championship for Cleveland. He brought the Cavs to the Finals last year, against these same Warriors, as a matter of fact, but injuries to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love effectively rendered the Cavs incapable of winning the series.

Healthier, the Cavs returned to the Finals, but fell down 3-1. They responded with the greatest comeback in NBA history, led by James. He scored 41 in games 5 and 6, and then posted a triple-double with 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in the series-clinching win.

"He's Babe Ruth and we're all going to be footnotes in history," general manager David Griffin said.

James, while soaked in champagne, chewing on a victory cigar, and with his three children draped around him Sunday night, said "I knew what I learned in the last couple years that I was gone, and I knew if I had to -- when I came back, I knew I had the right ingredients and the right blueprint to help this franchise get back to a place that we've never been.

"That's what it was all about," he said.

It's unfathomable that James would do anything other than return to the Cavs to defend this title. He can become a free agent within a matter of days, and he'll indeed opt out of the $24 million contract he has for the 2016-17 season so he can net a raise.

There were any number of factors contributing to James' return to Cleveland, and he checked one off by beating the Warriors in the Finals. Way, way down on the list was working with Gilbert.

But now that the two have reunited, and in fact delivered that championship in year two of their partnership, it's hard to see how this ends any time soon.

Don't forget, the player who made the game-winning 3-pointer Sunday night, Kyrie Irving, is 24 and under contract for several years.

"I think we've got a pretty good thing going here," Gilbert said. "I just told him God loves Cleveland and God loves you. It's just great. There's really no words."

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story said Gilbert was owner of The Q. His holding company leases, operates, has total authority over, and receives a vast majority of the revenues from each even held at Quicken Loans Arena, but the building is publicly owned.