With the Cleveland Cavaliers off to a 18-13 start to their season, talk of LeBron James leaving the team at the end of the season is already starting to surface.
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Let’s play a guessing game and figure out which era we’re talking about. The scenario is LeBron James is unhappy with a Cleveland Cavaliers team that thinks it can make it to the NBA Finals and win a ring but isn’t putting in the effort to do so. The head coach can’t click with the team and LeBron James is ready to leave.
No, it’s not 2010 — rather, it’s 2010 all over again.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers off to a 18-13 start, losing to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, there is renewed speculation that LeBron James will leave the team at the end of the season to pursue a better situation to play out the prime years of his career in. Playing on a fledging team who can’t gel together and won’t listen to their head coach is not the definition of ideal, as LeBron could be in Chicago, Dallas or Miami and be a contender at the top of the list right now.
If LeBron James seriously leaves the Cleveland Cavaliers after just one season, if he throws up his arms and gives North Ohio the ‘peace out’ sign after seeing just one season of how bad the franchise is, they might be better off moving to Seattle to save face.
Instead, he’s in Cleveland and seems to be regretting his decision to return.
Of course, a lot of this falls on LeBron James who is supposed to be the knight in shining armor for the Cavaliers but remains in ‘chill mode’ while the team figures itself out. That’s not what a leader does, but the sting of LeBron James leaving the Cavaliers has worn off for the general population of the NBA and his doing so again would only hurt the franchise and not LeBron.
The first time he left, LeBron James was a villain, but should he leave a second time it may only be met with a chuckle and a shoulder shrug outside of Cleveland. The city and the franchise he leaves behind, however, would burn to the ground.
The Cavaliers, as a franchise might be so decimated that they’d be forced to leave and relocate — that’s not a joke or hyperbole either. If LeBron James seriously leaves the Cleveland Cavaliers after just one season, if he throws up his arms and gives North Ohio the ‘peace out’ sign after seeing just one season of how bad the franchise is, they might be better off moving to Seattle to save face.
That’s how bad LeBron James leaving this franchise would sting everyone and how big of a loss on this gamble it would be. Not only would it confirm Dan Gilbert’s incompetence but it would cripple the franchise so badly that moving to Seattle to be loved by Sonics fans would be the only way to soothe that amount of pain and disgust.
It’s not all LeBron’s fault, but it’s not all on Cleveland. This is a situation that is very quickly losing it’s romantic appeal and becoming like getting back together with your ex, only to confirm your initial doubts about the relationship were right all along.