It will be a homecoming unlike any other in NBA history. LeBron James, at different times the most loved and most hated athlete in Cleveland, will wear a Cavaliers uniform for the first time in four years when his team takes on the New York Knicks tonight. James decided to return to Cleveland after playing in four straight championships, and winning two, with the Miami Heat.
Has it only been four years? It feels like several lifetimes since 8 July 2010, one of the darkest days in the already pitch-black annals of Cleveland sports history. That day, LeBron, born and raised in Akron, went on national television and announced that he would be leaving to from a “superteam” in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
The reaction was strong. With perceived betrayal, James had enraged not just Cavaliers fans, many of whom assumed the decision to broadcast his choice live on ESPN meant he would be making the “right” move to stay with the home team, but sports fans across the country.
Some of this anger came from how unfair it felt, a sense amplified by Cleveland’s history of heartbreak when it came to their professional sports teams. The last major Cleveland team to win a championship was the Browns in 1964. That, of course, was before the Super Bowl era, which might as well not count, and before owner Art Modell moved that particular team to Baltimore to become the Ravens in 1995. The Indians have not won the World Series since 1948. The Cavaliers have never won a championship.
One person, however, was convinced The Decision would mark an end to Cleveland’s bad luck. That would be James’s once and future boss, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who rush-released an angry missive (in Comic Sans, no less!) that reflected the sense of betrayal felt by many at the time, along with a curious prediction:
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment …
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown “chosen one” sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And “who” we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called “curse” on Cleveland, Ohio.
Gilbert’s letter would go on to proclaim that the Cavaliers would win a championship before LeBron James ever would. While Gilbert would have a chance to gloat after James and the Miami Heat ran out of gas in the 2011 finals against the underdog Dallas Mavericks, that particular prophecy turned out to be a bust.
LeBron would return to the finals the next three years, winning in 2012 and 2013. Those years he would also end up picking up finals MVP honors to go with regular season MVPs, with an Olympic gold medal thrown in the mix. The fans who ridiculed him were starting to include him in the NBA greatest player conversation.
As Miami prospered, Cleveland struggled. From 2010-14, the Cavaliers were either one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference or among the most disappointing. This last season they had hopes of making the postseason for the first time since James’s departure and had the talent to do so in an incredibly up-for-grabs East. Instead, dysfunction, in-fighting and poor play caused them to fall into the NBA draft lottery for the fourth straight year.
This, oddly enough, may have been a fortuitous fall. Dan Gilbert may have been prophetic, but not for reasons he would have been happy about at the time. In James’s absence, the Cavaliers have been both bad and lucky enough to land on high picks in the NBA draft.
Most notably, the Cavaliers managed to get three No1 picks in four years, an improbable enough event statistically that it has led to conspiracy theories. With no hope of competing without James in 2011, they traded Mo Williams to the Clippers for a first-round pick that became eventual (temporary) franchise player Kyrie Irving. That year they also picked up forward Tristan Thompson with their own number three pick.
After landing the fourth overall pick in 2012, which they used on talented but disruptive guard Dion Waiters, they drew the number one pick again in 2013 which they turned into the perhaps overvalued Anthony Bennett. A year later, they drew the top pick yet again, despite having just a 1.7% chance, and made a less controversial choice in taking Kansas’s Andrew Wiggins. The Cavs would not have been a lottery team had LeBron James stayed with them, and they certainly would not have had this many opportunities to select players as coveted as these.
After his aging Miami team lost to the Spurs in the 2014 finals, it’s not surprising that this young Cavs team became attractive to James. In his open letter in Sports Illustrated, , he mentioned most of these players in his list of reasons for returning to Cleveland:
I see myself as a mentor now and I’m excited to lead some of these talented young guys. I think I can help Kyrie Irving become one of the best point guards in our league. I think I can help elevate Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. And I can’t wait to reunite with Anderson Varejao, one of my favorite teammates.
Wiggins and Bennett were notably absent from this list. The reasons why became obvious when the Cavaliers packaged the two top overall picks in a trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves in return for all-star power forward Kevin Love, the best rebounder in basketball. Just like that, James was part of a new, younger big three with the 26-year-old Love and 22-year-old Irving.
This couldn’t have worked out better if it were scripted. (The sound you hear is NBA conspiracy theorists grumbling: “That’s because it was.”)
James left Cleveland because he didn’t see the team being able to surround him with the quality of talent he needed. Miami offered him a chance to play with a former Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade, who would share the burdens of leadership, and an all-star, Chris Bosh, who was willing to sacrifice his numbers on a nightly basis. James wasn’t just able to make four straight NBA finals and win two championships: he also had the opportunity to raise his game to a level he couldn’t have had he stayed home.
James is returning to the Cavaliers as a better player than he was in 2010. Thanks to his absence, and a whole lot of luck on Cleveland’s part, James is returning to a supporting cast much better than they could have assembled with him. The greatest player in franchise history has returned to lead most talented squad in franchise history.
Losing James was the worst possible thing that could happen to this franchise in the short term, but perhaps the best in the long term. If this incarnation of the Cavaliers can’t win Cleveland’s first major championship since 1964, it’s hard to imagine what team possibly could.
