LeBron James had a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols about the recruiting of star players to his respective teams and the Cleveland Cavaliers happened to become a part of that conversation.
LeBron James had a recent sit-down with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, and they touched on several topics, and one of the topics was James’ ability to recruit star talent to come play with him.
He was asked by Nichols about if he was going to be recruiting players to the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron went into detail and even described his experiences recruiting in Cleveland during his first and second stints with the organization.
James noted how in Cleveland, things “just didn’t work out.”
"“RN: So you don’t feel it was you?LJ: No, I don’t feel that was me. I tried to recruit so many guys to come to Cleveland, and we actually had — I had a couple guys, and it just didn’t work out.RN: Tell me now, don’t wait for the 30 for 30. Tell me now.LJ: No, I don’t wanna — I don’t wanna. But it wasn’t hard getting guys in Miami, I’ll tell you that. So now that I think being in L.A., I don’t think it would be that hard to get guys here. But we gotta win. At the end of the day, it’s all about winning. So that’s my job right now is to show everybody that I can win, with whatever.”"
My personal opinion, if you look at it at face value and take it as James said guys didn’t want to come to Cleveland, some may take that as he was taking a shot at the city of Cleveland, but in my opinion if you dig deeper, I think it’s far from that.
The first quote from James (or “LJ” as he is referred to from Nichols), says it all in that way.
It leads me to think he may have had a star sold on the idea of coming to Cleveland in the summer of 2017.
Could that player that James thought he had convinced have maybe been Paul George? George was linked to the Cleveland Cavaliers a lot in the summer of 2017.
Last year in December, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst said this in an article.
"“At this stage of James’ career, a roster with two-way players who could help battle his rivals in Golden State would be a huge plus. Other playmakers who can take the burden off James would help as well. That’s the reason James and George, the other marquee free agent next summer, have been linked. James aggressively recruited George behind the scenes last summer, selling him on a future together in Cleveland, but the Cavs deal mysteriously fell apart before George was dealt to Oklahoma City.”"
I truly don’t believe he was taking a shot at the city of Cleveland, but more so majority owner Dan Gilbert and the Cavs’ front office. James has voiced frustrations over the Kyrie Irving trade in the past in a different sit-down with Nichols on the eve of last year’s NBA Finals.
LeBron sat down with @Rachel__Nichols and discussed the Kyrie Irving trade last summer. pic.twitter.com/D0LbzxEr3H
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 31, 2018
I think it’s fair to say James definitely still has plenty of frustration towards Gilbert and the front office for making that trade and in my opinion, he feels if a few things had been done differently the Cavs would’ve had a heck of a shot at winning last year’s finals and perhaps James would have stayed in Cleveland long-term.
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I personally agree with LeBron and it’s not a knock on Collin Sexton (who was a key piece as the Boston Celtics’ eventual pick in the Irving deal Cleveland received), as I actually think he’ll be a good NBA player and the unfortunate comparisons to Irving are unfair to him.
I just think LeBron’s comments were more directed at Gilbert and the front office for one, letting past general manager David Griffin go in the summer of 2017 and two, how they handled the Kyrie trade.
It’s just when you have a championship-caliber roster and a real chance to win it all, you have to maximize that and worry about everything else later. It’s just simply because it’s so difficult to get back to that level.
The Chicago Bulls won six championships in eight years in the 1990’s, but have been to just one conference finals since Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and head coach Phil Jackson left (although they had some unfortunate bad luck with injuries to Derrick Rose), and the Detroit Pistons who won a championship in the mid 2000’s, have had just one winning season over the last 10 years. Plus, the Orlando Magic haven’t been the same since Dwight Howard departed.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, as the Boston Celtics rebounded quickly from their “Big Three” era to now where it looks like they’ll be a real contender for a while. It’s just difficult getting back to that level and when you’re at that level (as the Cavs were with James) you have to maximize that window and the Cavs unfortunately didn’t.