Getty Images/Mike Ehrmann
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
CLEVELAND -- NBA rookie and Cleveland State University alumnus Norris Cole won his first NBA Championship Thursday night, when the Miami Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-106.
The Heat won in five games.
Cole, 23, played backup to PG Mario Chalmers.
In Game 5, he shot 1-for-4, with 3 points and a rebound in 17 minutes.
The Dayton native fueled a comeback in Game 4, scoring 8 points, as the team rallied from 11 points down in the first half.
Cole, a 2012 first round draft pick (28th overall), averaged 6.8 points per game, and 2 assists per game in his rookie year.
He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, but landed in Miami after a series of trades.
At CSU, the 6-foot-2 Cole was the first player in Horizon League history to win both Horizon League Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.
Cole is one of two local stars to win an NBA title Thursday night. He is joined by Akron native LeBron James, who won his first championship since the Cleveland Cavaliers selected him with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
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