If LeBron James went to college, Cavs, CLE would have missed everything

The Cleveland Cavaliers and their fan base are forever grateful for LeBron James, and if he had to go to college or chose to for one year, The Land would not have had the pleasure of watching James.

If LeBron James chose to go to college for one year, or was a one-and-done guy which is the case for so many prospects now, or chose to make a big pay day overseas, the Cleveland Cavaliers would have missed out on drafting one of the best players ever. This hypothetical scenario was put together by the FanSided video team recently, for the record.

James, of course, was the most famous player in the history of the Association to come straight from high school, as he did when he declared for the NBA Draft back in 2003. In the aforementioned hypothetical scenario, FanSided discussed how James would probably decide between two colleges for his one year, with those being THE Ohio State University and Duke.

The FS video team believes that James, a well-documented Buckeye die-hard fan, might have turned this scenario into the “decision before The Decision,” if you will, that could have come down to OSU and Duke. They would eventually say that James might go with Duke, and mentioned how the Blue Devils had NBA talent that season, with Luol Deng, Chris Duhon and J.J. Redick, while the Bucks weren’t too talented themselves, and that Duke would have won another ring.

Next, they highlighted how in the next year’s draft, the Orlando Magic had the number one pick, not the Cleveland Cavaliers. They would obviously choose James with that pick, and not their actual pick, Dwight Howard, which would not allow Cleveland to get their hometown hero.

The FS video team would note that the league would have a good chance of getting the LeBron-Kobe Bryant NBA Finals they had always wanted, and that the King would eventually be set up to leave Orlando and take over Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers team right after Bryant retires.

James is a Laker now, but it’s been a while since Bryant’s team has been relevant in the scope of the league. Most notably, though, Cleveland would have never had their love (well, mostly love), affair with 23.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ would miss out on acquiring the best player in their franchises’ history, and his 27.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks per game in his 11 seasons with them (per Basketball Reference).

The Cavs would not have been to the postseason repeatedly, never had the LeBron “Return” tour from 2014-15 to 2017-18, and would not have made it to five NBA Finals (the first one in 2007 wouldn’t have happened, either).

Those Cleveland Cavaliers’ Finals appearances were mostly because of James, and they would certainly not have won The Land its first major professional sports championship since 1964.

Basically, this hypothetical scenario showed how great it was that the King could come into the NBA straight from high school, which would not have been the case under the current league draft rules.

The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement states that prospects that are not an “international player” must be at least one year removed from the graduation of their high school class, which would mean one season has passed.

In short, if LeBron went to school for one year back in the day, the Cavs would still be ringless, and the Cleveland major sports championship drought would still be ongoing.