'Can't be sleeping right now': Behind-the-scenes look at NBA playoff preparation

Before the first game of Cleveland's opening-round playoff series of 2015, Cavaliers players gathered to watch a video meant for the team's eyes only.

It opened with the city skyline, then flashed to a boxer, face shrouded, entering a ring.

For the next 8 minutes and 14 seconds, every conceivable season highlight, from LeBron James dunks to Kendrick Perkins jump hooks, played in rapid succession to a thumping beat. Spliced into the video were quotes from Malcolm X and Charles de Gaulle. There were motivational video clips of Ray Lewis, Bill Parcells and Red Auerbach extolling the virtues of a title and a voice-over from a narrator who intoned that "greatness does not come along very often."

A clip of Muhammad Ali calling out critics was followed by a selection of ESPN commentators, including Brian Windhorst, Bill Simmons, Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, who had doubting assessments of the Cavaliers. Then the lyrics of a Drake track cut in: I got enemies, got a lot of enemies.

The hype video was created in part