LeBron James' return to Cleveland from Miami changes the NBA landscape

Once again, LeBron James has made a decision in free agency that has sent shockwaves across the NBA.

In a Sports Illustrated feature published on Friday, basketball’s best player and biggest star announced that after four seasons, four NBA Finals and two championships he is leaving the Miami Heat and returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In returning to the team with whom he began his career, he hopes to end a 50-year championship drought in a city that has become nearly synonymous with sports misery.

When James opted out of his contract with the Heat a few weeks ago, it didn’t necessarily mean serious changes would follow. Several days later, when team-mates Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem followed suit, the consensus was that they would all return to the Heat, but were planning to restructure their contracts to allow Miami to revamp their roster and remain competitive.

But by the time teams were allowed to sign free agents, on Thursday, there were more and more serious signs James would instead return to the Cavaliers, the team who drafted him in 2003.

Cleveland isn’t the surprising part of the news. Even after James, who is from Akron, Ohio, became the most hated figure in his home state after announcing in a poorly conceived 2010 live TV special that he would leave join the Heat, there was always the thought that eventually he would return.

What is somewhat surprising is that James is returning so soon. The wounds were felt to be too fresh – it was only a few years ago that fans were burning jerseys on the streets, banners were being taken down and the Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, was writing an infamous open letter, lambasting James for betraying the team and the city.

Heck, the Cavaliers web team hadn’t even bothered to scrub that letter from the website until a few days ago.

So why is James returning now? According to the man himself, a lot of it involves his legacy, now he fully understands what winning a title in a championship-starved city like Cleveland would mean. As he told Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins:

When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission. I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.

I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there. I just didn’t know when … I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.

That’s the sentimental part of the equation and there’s probably some truth to it, although the announcement mostly reveals that James has learned to be way better at PR in the four years since The Decision. He hints at a far more likely reason when he talks about mentoring younger players like Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters: if the choice was indeed between the Heat and the Cavaliers, the Cavaliers might actually, for the first time in James’ NBA career, be able to provide a better supporting cast.

When James left for Miami to join Wade and Bosh it was partly because he felt, rightly, that the Cavaliers were not surrounding him with enough talent to compete. As James said in Friday’s announcement, his goal was to win championships, and in Miami he was able to reach the NBA Finals every year.

In this year’s finals, however, the San Antonio Spurs exposed Miami’s flaws, knocking them out in five games, most of them routs. Wade was showing his age, Bosh would occasionally disappear and the spare and reclaimed parts that made up the rest of the roster provided very little help. More than one commentator noted that James was trying to carry the team, just as he had to do with some of those old Cavaliers lineups.

Now, it’s not entirely certain what the Cavaliers will look like with James. They have already shipped out Jarrett Jack, their big free-agent get last season, to help clear the cap space to sign James. There almost certainly are more moves to come. What is certain is that there is a lot of youth, talent and potential in this lineup, especially when compared to what the Heat looked like last season.

While All-Star guard Kyrie Irving took a slight step back in 2013-14, with James onboard he will no longer be forced into a leadership role he seems ill-equipped to handle. Beyond the young players James mentions by name, Cleveland also has two No1 Draft picks on the roster, the disappointing but still young Anthony Bennett and the potentially transcendent Andrew Wiggins, who could help the team either as part of the 2014-15 effort or as valuable trade assets.

Expect the trade rumors to start flying – with James onboard, it’s almost certain that the Cavs will at least inquire about trading for Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love.

If the Heat looked flawed with James, they could look like a complete mess without him. Even before today’s news, there were rumors that if James were to sign elsewhere Bosh would leave as well, most likely to the Houston Rockets.

Even if Bosh does remain with Wade in Miami, they will look nothing like the team that has terrorized the Eastern Conference over the last four years. The NBA has lost its most reliable villains and, as fascinating as it will be to see how all of this plays out in Cleveland, the NBA won’t quite be as fun now that the Big Three era is over.

It was time, though, for a shakeup in the NBA and James’s announcement certainly changes everything. With his return, the city of Cleveland has it best chance of winning its first championship since the 1964 Browns.

That would be one way to apologize breaking the heart of a city.