LeBron James was thrilled to hear he now has the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise record for games played.
Here’s a soundbite that fans of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers may want to save. Especially before the 2018 offseason rolls around and fans are losing their minds at the thought of James leaving their beloved franchise for a second time.
After their match against the Brooklyn Nets, James became the franchise’s all-time leader in games played with 772, passing good friend and fan favorite Zydrunas Ilgauskus for the lead. James was asked about what the moment means to him in the locker room.
Visibly excited (and surprised) by the news, here was James’ response:
"“Woo! It’s the greatest thing ever. What does it mean?… I’m available to my teammates mostly every night and…anytime I’m linked with Big Z – a really good friend of mine – it’s pretty cool.”"
Smiling throughout his answer, likely genuinely enthused to hear about the piece of history he made with the Cavs’ franchise. This is James’ 11th season playing for the Cavs, after playing for the Miami Heat for four seasons (2010-2011 to 2013-2014).
James was already the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise leader in minutes played (30,292), made field goals made (7,567), made three-point field goals (1,111), made free-throws (4,761), defensive rebounds (4,578), assists (5,526), steals (1,265), points (21,006), points per game (27.2), PER (26.9) and win shares (141.3) amongst other categories.
So it only makes sense for him to be the franchise’s leader in all-time games played too. In addition to James’ regular season accolades, James is responsible for leading the Cavs franchise to 8 out of their 21 playoff appearances (2005-2006 to 2009-2010 and then from 2014-2015 to 2016-2017), their only three NBA Finals appearances (2015, 2016, 2017) and their lone championship (2016).
That last accomplishment, bringing a NBA championship to The Land, earned a heartfelt response from an emotionally overwhelmed James and resulted in one of the greatest championship parades the NBA has ever seen.
The fans didn’t want James, a larger-than-life superstar to leave the first time. The years when he and his good friend Big Z were mainstays on a roster that faced constant upheaval. Cavs fans certainly don’t want the four-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA champion, three-time NBA Finals MVP and 14-time All-Star to leave now.
James doesn’t owe Cleveland anything, of course. If Kyrie Irving was to have stayed in The Land, it’s possible that James would have left next summer to concede control of the Cavs franchise to “The Kid”. However, Irving (a beloved player by all accounts) requested a trade and it just seems like James is more connected with the team. Especially after stating at Media Day that his intentions to finish his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers hasn’t changed.
Looking at James’ response to becoming the franchise leader in games played, it’s clear that the accomplishment hit home for James. I’m not a psychologist or anything but it would seem like that’s pretty good evidence about how he feels about this franchise.
Not (Cavs owner) Dan Gilbert. Not “The Letter”.
The Cleveland Cavaliers franchise.
It was rumored that “Big Z” (Ilgauskus) asked James to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers when the latter returned to Cleveland for Ilgauskus’ jersey retirement ceremony.
If he did, Z receives a big assist from the franchise.
If he did, then James passing Ilgauskus in career games played for the Cavs franchise after leaving a thriving Miami Heat team bears more significance. It would possibly serve as a reminder to James of the day Ilgauskus asked him to return to the team and further fortify his resolve to stay in Cleveland.
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*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com