Cavs: 5 guests who’d be awesome to hear from if LeBron James documentary were to be made
By Dan Gilinsky
The first two episodes of “The Last Dance” on Sunday were fantastic. Playing off that, it got me thinking that if a documentary were to be eventually made about the best player in Cleveland Cavaliers history, LeBron James, five guests in particular, would be awesome to hear from.
Even as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I was more than pleased with the first episodes of “The Last Dance,” which is a ten-part documentary highlighting unreal access to the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-98 season, and Michael Jordan is playing a central role in the documentary series.
I agree with Cavs big man Tristan Thompson, though, who recently tweeted about how the next documentary, seemingly regarding generational NBA players or perhaps athletes, should be about the late Kobe Bryant.
Albeit as a Cavs fan spitballing with the season on hiatus in relation to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and considering he’s arguably the greatest NBA player ever, I’d love to eventually see a documentary series, feasibly, about LeBron James. James, while now on the Los Angeles Lakers, has spent 11 seasons of his career with the Cavaliers, and was the key cog in leading Cleveland to its’ only championship in franchise history in 2016, and he, as you know, spent four seasons with the Miami Heat as well.
Anyhow, former NFLer Michael Campanaro, I’m with you on this, too, what a fun watch a LeBron doc would be (and maybe it’d come pre-2040).
So who might be some guests that would be awesome to see in a potential LeBron documentary series to come maybe at some point?
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One that comes to mind is a player that James seemingly played a crucial role in turning around.
#5: J.R. Smith
J.R. Smith‘s ending to his time with the Cavaliers was rather uneventful, as he and the Wine and Gold basically agreed on him not being an active member of the team when the squad shifted to a full-rebuild early on in the 2018-19 season.
Smith was later waived and stretched, but looking back to when the Cavs made four straight runs to the NBA Finals in James’ return to Cleveland, Smith was a really important piece as a solid perimeter defender and shot-maker, who hit 38.1 percent of his three-point attempts with Cleveland.
Along with that, though, it was unclear back when the Cavs acquired Smith in 2015 via trade from the New York Knicks in a three-team trade involving the Oklahoma City Thunder as well if Cleveland would get much out of Smith.
J.R. had been up and down on the Knicks, and he had his issues off the floor, and it was uncertain if he could realistically buy in with LeBron and the Cavs.
Albeit as KJG’s Robbie DiPaola demonstrated, Smith who was seemingly a “throw-in,” did buy in with the Cavs, and seemingly right away.
He became much more engaged defensively, which was big in the postseason, and Smith became a starting piece for Cleveland, and seemingly fit in really well alongside LeBron, and Smith seemed to endear himself to Cleveland and the fan base early on, too, and I’m sure he still has plenty of love for Cavs fans.
With how much LeBron seemed to touch J.R., who even still did have his mishaps at times, though, just even factoring in his infamous 2018 NBA Finals Game 1 incident, I’d still really like to hear from Smith about how LeBron taught him more about winning basketball, and how James affected J.R. off the floor.
Smith is always authentic, and I’d think it’d also be fun to hear from Smith more about LeBron as a person off the floor and how he connected with teammates as a special leader, too.