As Training Camp Starts, LeBron James' Old Team Is New in Almost Every Way
CLEVELAND — LeBron James has gone home, but much of the neighborhood has changed.
The coach is different. Mike Brown is excised from everywhere but the payroll after he sputtered out one year into his second stint with the team. Brown had replaced Byron Scott, who had replaced him. The current coach, David Blatt, has yet to coach an NBA game.
The general manager is different. Danny Ferry is embroiled in scandal in Atlanta, and the former deputy who replaced him, Chris Grant, is unemployed. The current general manager, David Griffin, didn't join the franchise until September 2010, two months after James left.
Eighteen of the 19 other players in training camp are different. There are more of James' former Miami Heat teammates (Mike Miller and James Jones) than former Cavaliers teammates (Anderson Varejao) on this Cleveland roster. Actually, other than Varejao, only three other players who wore Cavaliers colors during the 2009-10 season are in the NBA anywhere—Mo Williams in Minnesota, Danny Green in San Antonio and J.J. Hickson in Denver.
Those colors? Different, too. For the 2010-11 season, the first after James' departure, the Cavaliers unveiled "throwback" uniforms with a "deeper wine and brighter gold" prior to throwing away 63 of 82 games.
The radio announcer is different, with Joe Tait retiring after three decades in '10-11. Most of the traveling media contingent is different. Some of the media relations staff is different. And while the mascot isn't different—Moondog still soars and sheds inside Quicken Loans Arena—the fans' best friend now shares the stage with the swashbuckling Sir CC.
So much has changed.
So, how much has James?
That's among the most compelling questions of this season, and one likely to be posed directly to him Friday afternoon. That's when the Cavaliers are holding their annual media day, expected to be attended by more than 250 credentialed members of the press at the team's practice facility in Independence—roughly the same number that crowded into a University of Miami gym prior to James' first season with the Heat. It will also be monitored through training camp, which starts Saturday, and the preseason, with the opening game against Blatt's former team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, on Oct. 5 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Four years later, James has returned to Cleveland much heavier in hardware (two championships, two more MVPs) and far lighter in spirit, no longer bearing the burden of the nation's ire, contempt and disappointment, but basking in its applause, appreciation and adulation. He's returned with a different look, shedding some pounds after cutting carbs, sugar and dairy for more than two months and yes, appearing to cover some scalp. He's returned a married man, with a third child, a first daughter, coming soon.
He's returned with a redefined repertoire, rooted in an emphasis on more refined shot selection as well as an understanding of the need to evolve as he ages. As he explained during the 2014 NBA Finals: "I've changed my game since I've got to Miami in the sense that I was probably 75‑85 percent pick‑and‑rolls in Cleveland and after that it was isolation. Now I'm a third of pick‑and‑rolls—no, I would say 40 percent post‑ups, 40 percent pick‑and‑rolls and not even as much isos. I would sprinkle it in, and I've changed my game since then and I will change my game. You have to. Father Time is undefeated."
The Cleveland curse was also undefeated during his first seven years with the Cavaliers, a source of considerable exasperation, as was his inability to convince strong complementary pieces to pair with him. The Cavaliers' incompetence in his absence, however, allowed them to accumulate lottery assets, and his two championships in Miami made him a magnet. So he returns to a team that, while raw, represents the strongest collection of talent he's had while representing the area.
So it would be foolish to assume he's returned with anything other than the same ambitions, for himself or his new—yes, new, in all that's changed—squad.
It was possible to incorrectly come to another conclusion after reading his "Coming Home" essay, in which he stated, "I'm not promising a championship. I know how hard that is to deliver. We're not ready right now. No way. Of course, I want to win next year, but I'm realistic. It's a long process, much longer than it was in 2010. My patience will get tested."
Patience is not James' most elastic attribute, so he may need to keep it from snapping as he initially experiences culture shock, compared to what he recently experienced in Miami. Sacrifice and maturity are skill sets of their own, as important as dribbling or shooting, and the young Cavaliers need to show they can put aside their lineup preferences, contract hopes and shot desires to come together quickly.
And while the people of Northeast Ohio will likely give him all the time he needs, as they should in light of the gift he's giving them, the public and pundits outside that area may not be as patient, now that Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, two youngsters not mentioned in his essay, have been exchanged for perennial All-Star Kevin Love.
While these Cavaliers don't have anyone the equal of Dwyane Wade in his prime, as the 2010-11 Heat did, they are stronger in spots four through 10 than that ragtag collection of Arroyos, Bibbys and Anthonys—Joel, not Carmelo. No one's expectations, however, are more extreme than his are, and no one should be expecting that to change.
Consider all that he said just 12 months ago, during a relaxed appearance at the podium for what turned out to be his final Heat media day. Asked whether he had accomplished what he had come to Miami for, James smiled: "No, I haven't accomplished it, not yet. Not till I win, not 11, not 12, not 13, not 14. Not until I win that will I have accomplished my feat. No, just messing around, but...that will be the front of the damn page right there."
He laughed.
"Yeah, LeBron at 50 guarantees championship," James said.
He was more serious later in the session.
"I want to be the greatest of all time," James said. "That's my motivation. ... It's not to be the greatest of all time in anybody else's book, or how they judge. It's for me."
How close is he?
"I'm far," James said. "I'm far away from it. But I see the light."
The lights have now gone out on his Miami run, after he prematurely pulled all the plugs.
Now he recharges in Cleveland. As he has changed his scenery, he has seemingly changed the calculus, in terms of what constitutes the ultimate success.
For him.
"When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission," he wrote in his essay. "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."
In his heart, at this moment, that may be true. And, for some, even those who held him to the highest standards, it may even change the conversation.
But not for most.
Not for those who will always wonder if he would have been better off staying with a proven organization, at least until proven builder Pat Riley retired. Not for those who, prior to him dismissing all of the basketball legacy talk as "kind of stupid" during the NBA Finals, viewed it as part and parcel to his slogan, #striveforgreatness.
Not for those who bristle at the notion that anyone is better—that anyone can stop him one-on-one, that any contemporary can guard "1 through 5" like he does.
Not for those who believe he still wants to be "the greatest of all time," a designation that—rightly or wrongly—customarily requires a fistful of rings. Or, as he joked last media day, "not 11, not 12, not 13, not 14."
That ambition won't change—not when the talking stops and the playing finally starts. So the real question can't be answered Friday. The real question is whether the Cavaliers have changed enough for the better, since he last left, to help him get where he'll undoubtedly still want to go.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick.
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