LEBRON BACK IN CLEVELAND!

JHS5120

I guess there's a sports section but who cares..

Leaves for four years, lets Cleveland pick up three first overall picks and then comes back to bring it home. Amazing strategy and flawless execution! (I'm only half joking)

LarkinCollector

<< <i>I guess there's a sports section but who cares..

Leaves for four years, lets Cleveland pick up three first overall picks and then comes back to bring it home. Amazing strategy and flawless execution! (I'm only half joking) >>


How soon until the owner is forced to sell the team? (I'm only half joking as well)

Raulsmaster

I'm an Akronite. I'm loving it!

JHS5120

<< <i>How soon until the owner is forced to sell the team? (I'm only half joking as well) >>



Has he said anything racist?

mtcards

Miami can now officially build the bronze statue of him grimacing in pain(LeBroning) and put it in the entry hall at Heat Stadium while their team goes 30-52 next year

MrSnuffleupagus

Stooge

Who Cares!!!

This is coming from a Bulls fan in case you were wondering....

Paul

LarkinCollector

<< <i>

<< <i>How soon until the owner is forced to sell the team? (I'm only half joking as well) >>



Has he said anything racist? >>


Not that I'm aware of, but if I were LeBron it would be one of the conditions of my signing.

jeffcbay

I'm a Cavs fan from Northeast Ohio, I was a LeBron fan up until he left, I don't like him anymore, I still don't like him today, and I'm not happy he's coming back. Every time I hear the term "hometown hero" used to describe LeBron it makes me cringe. If he was a hometown hero, he wouldn't have left. He's just another player to me. It's gonna be very difficult for me to cheer for the Cavs now. Even after his PR agent's letter on SI.com.

lawnmowerman

Dboneesq

Is this where you chose, Lebron?

Dboneesq

I wonder if this guy is still singing in Cleveland. If he is and Lebron went to see him one night, think he would sing this song? LOL

jeffcbay

Both of those videos were made by a local comedian named Mike Polk Jr., and he has his own TV show in Cleveland. Pretty funny dude.

ndleo

The move to Cleveland is probably the better over the next few years basketball wise. Miami was becoming an old, shallow team. It would have taken another good player willing to take a pay cut for that show to last much longer.

I'm sure Wade would like to take back that opt out now. No one is going to pay him $20 M to play 50 games/year.

grote15

Any bitterness towards James will evaporate quickly once the Cavs start winning.

Baseballfans

<< <i>Any bitterness towards James will evaporate quickly once the Cavs start winning. >>


Yep unless he get to the NBA Final & lost everytime. Fans support winning team is just part of human nature.

scashaggy

While I am not happy about this news, I understand it.

Miami hasn't made the right moves in the past couple of years. What those moves are, I don't know. They aged quickly and Wade was mostly ineffective when it counted recently.

I imagine that Lebron was unimpressed with the players that the Heat was targeting this off-season and figured he had a better chance in Cleveland.


I wish Lebron the best and thank him for his years in Miami.

jmaciu

I applaude Lebron. After his distasteful "Decision" in 2010 and Dan Gilbert throwing him under the bus, this move was done with class.

Mickey71

He's an all time great....just face it. He'll probably make them win the East. When he lost to the Spurs...he had no chance either time. He has had terrible big men who can't score or play defense in the middle at all. Oden played about as many minutes with the Heat as I did this year. And there never was an OFFICIAL BIG 3. Bosh is not a great player. His biggest strength for the past year was a few 3 pointers.......not a post player whatsoever.

SeattleSlammer

<< <i>I'm a Cavs fan from Northeast Ohio, I was a LeBron fan up until he left, I don't like him anymore, I still don't like him today, and I'm not happy he's coming back. Every time I hear the term "hometown hero" used to describe LeBron it makes me cringe. If he was a hometown hero, he wouldn't have left. He's just another player to me. It's gonna be very difficult for me to cheer for the Cavs now. Even after his PR agent's letter on SI.com. >>




LeBron owed/owes you nothing.
The fans' sense of entitlement blows my mind!!

swartz1

I love "me" players...

cpamike

<< <i>I love "me" players... >>



Me too.

1954

Lebron is one of the best basketball players that I have ever seen. My dislike towards him came when he left the Cavaliers and when Miami announced that ridiculous circus of a program. He is an amazing athlete but I can't cheer for this guy.

DanBessette

<< <i>

<< <i>Any bitterness towards James will evaporate quickly once the Cavs start winning. >>


Yep unless he get to the NBA Final & lost everytime. Fans support winning team is just part of human nature. >>



Are you gonna throw his cards in the pool?

charrigan

I also don't understand the line of thinking that suggests that players who leave in free agency are traitors or abandoning the city they previously played for. It is a business. Owners make business decisions, as do players. He could have been gentler and not put all of Ohio on blast by doing it live ("THE DECISION"). But, he publicly regrets that and admits it was a mistake.

halosfan

Pure Genious ...Play for your hometown team. Make millions. No Rings. Concoct some circus sideshow in South Beach. Get 2 rings in 4 years while hometown team stockpiles young talent. Opt out and go home. Now watch them trade for Love and Cleveland goes crazy.

Seriously though, when did Cleveland become the center of the sports universe hype wise?

galaxy27

I'll never understand the disdain for LBJ. During his first stint with the Cavs, he was consistently playing with four cadavers. One could argue that getting to the Finals with that '07 concoction is as impressive as anything he ever did with the Heat. Even then, it's not as if he bailed after a single season. He, in essence, wasted seven years of his professional career playing for a franchise that surrounded him with the likes of Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson and Sasha Pavlovic. Turning water into wine would have been easier for him to do than licking a championship trophy with that cast of characters.

So, who really deserves to be pissed? Think Kobe Bean would have stayed mum and hung around L.A. for seven seasons had he been forced to play that long with similar garbage? Surely you jest. He was teamed up with the Big Aristotle and now he can blind you when he puts his hands in front of your face.

If I were a Cavs fan, I'd be jubilant right about now. Watching that team is quickly going to become one of the most enjoyable things you can do with your clothes on. They'll be wreaking havoc for years to come because the organization finally woke up from a slumber and realized what it takes to construct a perennial powerhouse. LeBron is simply the proverbial icing, not the entire cake. The Cavs' stockpiled young talent is beyond sick, including the guy running the point who will be a top-5 player in just a few short years.

When you have next to no help, you'll invariably get your ass kicked by an archetype like the Spurs. Had LBJ appeased the masses the first time around and stayed in Cleveland, he would have retired with bare hands. For fans of the team who firmly grasp that, enjoy what's about to happen from this point forward. And the really ironic thing? Had he not departed for four years, none of this would be coming to fruition.

BPorter26

My wife who's a pretty up to date on current sports. I asked her if she heard that Lebron went back to Cleveland. My 14 year old daughter interjected and said " I didn't know he left Cleveland." I thought that was priceless. Btw my daughter only enjoys baseball.

BLUEJAYWAY

Wonder if he will be playing the oft quoted "team" basketball in Cleve. Yes it was stated the lack of team basketball led to the Heats demise vs. the Spurs this year. But what type of basketball was it called when he did win 2 titles in Miami. That form of play sure worked then.

Estil

First question that comes to my mind is, do the Cleveland fans want him back? As for him being a traitor, the other posters are correct that that him leaving was nothing more than a business decision (both more money and better chance at championship)...the reason Cleveland considered him a traitor was more the way he left.

slum22

I am definitely a pro-Lebron James guy. I actually didn't like him that much when he was originally with Cleveland. I actually started rooting for him more after he went to Miami because I felt he was unfairly being ripped apart for leaving. "The Decision" was certainly a bad PR move. However, Dan LeBatard made an interesting point about that press conference. What would the reaction to the televised decision have been if he had decided to stay in Cleveland? It would have been universally applauded. So the notion that having the press conference to announce where he would play was the reason for the backlash and negativity is a misnomer. The reason people were upset wasn't how he left (via a press conference) but rather the decision he made (the fact that he was leaving).

As galaxy27 already pointed out, the fact that he carried those ridiculous Cavs teams into contention and even to a Finals appearance was astounding in its achievement. Cleveland fans and the ridiculous owner of the team should be begging for his forgiveness for turning on him (those "Forgiven" shirts are laughable). Out of sheer luck via the ping pong ball lottery, he was drafted onto your team, made your city and team relevant for 7 years. He never publicly complained about the ridiculous front office moves (Larry Hughes, Ilgauskas, and a too young Varejao were the probably the best players he shared the court with in 7 years), the poor coaching (Mike Brown seems like a nice guy and a decent defensive mind, but his offensive system or lack of one is startling for a professional basketball coach) and the utter lack of talent around him. Then, when he is a free agent, he exercises his right to go to a better situation and he is excoriated for not being loyal. The notion of loyalty in professional sports is ridiculous. The 49ers are my favorite football team, the loyalty they showed to Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott are prime examples of why it's the height of hypocrisy to expect players to be loyal to teams. By the way, save all the adulation for Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Bill Russell or whoever else played for one team for their whole career in the good old days. Modern players are no less loyal than those players. Those players just never had the right to free agency. If you think even 1/3 of the players of yesteryear would have stayed on one team for their career out of some sense of "loyalty" you are off your rocker. They would have chased the money, titles are whatever else they wanted to chase if they would have had the right to free agency. It is easy to stay with one team your whole career if you have no choice in the matter. For anyone who dislikes Lebron James for leaving Cleveland: how many companies have you worked for? have you ever left a job to make more money? or just because you didn't like that workplace? The standard we hold the modern athlete to is ridiculous. Don't get me started on the idea that players should take less money than their worth to help their billionaire team owners save money. This post is already long enough.

Anyway, congratulations to Cleveland fans. You are getting a second chance to watch a historic NBA talent. Lebron James is better at basketball than anyone is at any sport at the moment. And it's not close. Enjoy this second run. I hope he leads your team to some titles.

Meatloaf

<< <i>Anyway, congratulations to Cleveland fans. You are getting a second chance to watch a historic NBA talent. Lebron James is better at basketball than anyone is at any sport at the moment. And it's not close. Enjoy this second run. I hope he leads your team to some titles. >>



Really? Messi is not better than any other soccer player actively at this moment? Back off a bit here...

Also, "historic," really? Hmmm...historic would imply > 1 championship and at least .500 in championships played. MJ did not lose a finals...even after walking away to ponder his father's death playing baseball...and did it with LESSER players around him in a league that was much tougher back then. Sigh....

This is All Your Need to Know...

DanBessette

<< <i>

<< <i>Anyway, congratulations to Cleveland fans. You are getting a second chance to watch a historic NBA talent. Lebron James is better at basketball than anyone is at any sport at the moment. And it's not close. Enjoy this second run. I hope he leads your team to some titles. >>



Really? Messi is not better than any other soccer player actively at this moment? Back off a bit here...

Also, "historic," really? Hmmm...historic would imply > 1 championship and at least .500 in championships played. MJ did not lose a finals...even after walking away to ponder his father's death playing baseball...and did it with LESSER players around him in a league that was much tougher back then. Sigh....

This is All Your Need to Know... >>



Messi is not even the unanimous best player in his sport. He might be the best, but a healthy Ronaldo won player of the year and some people thought it should go to that French guy. As for the Jordan reference, I don't follow your logic. Lebron isn't historically great, just because Jordan was even better? Being in the top ten all time doesn't count unless you're number one? I guess Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, bill Russell weren't legendary?

grote15

MJ did not lose a finals...even after walking away to ponder his father's death playing baseball...and did it with LESSER players around him in a league that was much tougher back then. Sigh....

Lesser players around him? Are you kidding? MJ was playing with TWO HOFers during that run. LBJ had no where near that kind of talent around him in Cleveland or even at Miami for that matter. MJ is the GOAT, no question, but let's not minimize his supporting cast, though.

Brick

I am delighted he made the right choice. I was a bit excited when I heard the news. A yell and a fist pump in the restaurant. Then I turned to high five a few other patrons. I never saw so many disinterested people at the same place. No one gave a crap. Then I remembered I was in Indy.

lawnmowerman

<< <i> MJ did not lose a finals...even after walking away to ponder his father's death playing baseball...and did it with LESSER players around him in a league that was much tougher back then. Sigh....

Lesser players around him? Are you kidding? MJ was playing with TWO HOFers during that run. LBJ had no where near that kind of talent around him in Cleveland or even at Miami for that matter. MJ is the GOAT, no question, but let's not minimize his supporting cast, though. >>



Exactly. I wouldn't coin Pippen and Rodman "lesser" players. Jordan didn't win anything until Pippen came along and without Rodman, they might not have the additional titles.

ThoseBackPages

there are surprisingly few PSA 10 LeBrons on eBay