Cavs' Darius Garland: I'm Having a 'Revenge Season' After Being Doubted by 'Haters'

Darius Garland says hearing from "the doubters and the haters" last offseason helped fuel him ahead of his All-Star campaign for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In a conversation edited by Cleveland Magazine's Dillon Stewart, Tristan Thompson asked Garland if he had come into training camp with a chip on his shoulder ahead of the 2024-25 season.

"No, we had a lot of conversations about this," Garland answered. "It was, quote-unquote, the revenge season."

Garland continued: "It’s a lot of people on the list that I wanted to get my get back, and a lot of people counted me out and doubted me from last year. So I just had that in my memory bank and just worked my butt off this summer. I was in the weight room a lot, trying to get my body back right. In the gym a lot, just trying to sharpen up my tools.

"But this year was literally a revenge season, just for all the doubters and the haters that just counted me out from last year with all the stuff I was going through. So this year, you’re getting a product from what everybody else was talking about last year."

Garland is averaging 20.7 points per game, second only to Donovan Mitchell for the team lead, while helping the Cavaliers remain on pace for the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

Among players with at least 40 clutch field goal attempts, Garland (31.6 net rating) and Mitchell (25.6 net rating) lead the NBA in accuracy.

That includes the game-winner Garland hit from the logo in the final seconds of a Feb. 5 win over the Pistons in Detroit.

Garland is playing in the second season of the five-year, $197 million deal he signed with the Cavaliers in 2022.

This year has been a bounce-back campaign for Garland, who told Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor that he had "sort of lost my joy for basketball" after suffering a broken jaw that had to be wired shut while sidelining him for over a month of the 2023-24 campaign.

Fedor also reported that Garland had spent time away from the team last season while dealing with the death of his grandmother.

Garland was subsequently the subject of trade rumors after reports of a potential split with Mitchell surfaced while the Cavaliers negotiated Mitchell's extension last spring.

Fedor reported at the time that a source told him Garland was "pissed when he read that and that came out because it wasn't his own feelings."

Both Garland and the Cavaliers have subsequently denied either side was considering a trade this offseason.

Sticking with both Mitchell and Garland paid off for the Cavs, who have now clinched a top-two seed in the East. Cleveland will continue battling the Boston Celtics for the top spot in the conference over the 11 games remaining in the regular season.