NBA Rumors: LeBron James Denies He’s Considering Leaving Cavaliers
By Sam Richmond
The final days of 2014 were not very kind to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs lost four of their final five games in December, reports floated around that the team is not behind coach David Blatt and, most importantly, rumors of LeBron James, who can opt out of his contract after this season and become a free agent, possibly leaving Cleveland heated up.
They began with a report from Chris B. Haynes of Cleveland.com that stated James, if the Cavaliers continue to struggle, “won’t hesitate to make the appropriate business decision if it means bolting.”
But the speculation of LeBron leaving was taken to a new stratosphere after a Reddit user discovered a conversation between James and Dwyane Wade from Christmas in which The Chosen One seemed to suggest that he wanted to leave the Cavs and reunite with the Heat star he was teammates with for four years.
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The Reddit user believed James to have told Wade:
“Like I said, if we aren’t better this year, we’re gonna reunite again and do some bigger and better things, alright?”
However, despite these nine seconds of audio flipping the NBA world upside down, LeBron is not planning on leaving the Cavs, the four-time MVP clarified on Wednesday to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“I’ve seen the clip just like you’ve seen the clip,” James said. “I don’t know exactly what I said at the beginning, either. I know I said, ‘We’ll get back together and do some bigger and better things,’ but it had nothing to do about basketball. I mean, if was going to tell him that, I’d tell him the night before. Come on, guys. I’m not stupid. I know I didn’t go to college but I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t say that on Christmas with a hundred cameras around. I would have told him the night before at his house.
“But, it’s just me so I get it. I get it. But it had nothing to do with leaving here and reuniting with him. It had everything to do with just talking about other things more than just basketball. Everybody gets so involved in basketball, our friendship, obviously, you guys know, is bigger than basketball. So, you know, our last four years couldn’t be bigger and better even if we did get back together. But, whatever. It’s crazy.”
LeBron and Wade having discussed something that has nothing to do with basketball makes a lot more sense than James revealing on Christmas day that he’s ready to ditch the Cavs.
As James suggested, there are always going to be crazy rumors and speculation about him because he is the most famous athlete today.
But the fact of the matter is that James will spend the rest of his career with the Cavaliers; he basically said as much throughout the famous letter he published in Sports Illustrated this summer in which he announced his free agency decision.
Still, Cavaliers fans surely appreciate James reaffirming his commitment to the franchise on Wednesday after all the commotion that nine seconds of audio caused.
LeBron is averaging 25.2 points, 7.6 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game this season.