With the Miami Heat in town for two days before their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the players had more time than usual on their hands. So the media decided to pick at the scab on the Cleveland sports scene and ask LeBron James if he would ever come back and wear the Wine and Gold again.
And James didn’t disappoint, practically setting the reporters’ notebooks on fire and simultaneously blowing up the Internet with a quote just as inflammatory as the one he uttered to Jim Gray at the Boys and Girls Club in Connecticut.
“I think it would be great,” James said. “It would be fun to play in front of these fans again. I had a lot fun times in my seven years here. You can’t predict the future, and hopefully I continue to stay healthy. And if I decide to come back, hopefully the fans will accept me.”
Oh boy.
First off, as fans we have to stop complaining when the national and local media report on things like this. We read the stories, we talk about, we Tweet about it;
we’re part of the problem, not the solution. The fact that you are reading this, and we are writing it, proves that.
Having said that, there are three questions that need to be answered in this scenario: Would James want to come back to Cleveland, and Would the fans embrace him if he did? (We’re holding the third one for later in the column).
As to the first question, why wouldn’t James want to return? Cleveland, and Northeast Ohio, is a place that is only appreciated by people who are here – if you’re not from here or don’t spend significant time here you just don’t get it.
It’s not surprising, really, that James would be feeling nostalgic this week. Because the Heat were in Indianapolis on Tuesday, the team decided to come straight to Cleveland for a few days rather than return to Miami.
That gave James time to stay at his home, see his children (we thought they are still here and did not move with their mom to Miami, but we read on ESPN this morning that is not the case), drive the familiar route to Quicken Loans Arena and generally remember what the non-basketball part of his life was like for the seven years he played with the Cavaliers. That’s a strong pull on someone, especially as you start to get older and view things in a different light.
As to the second question, would the fans welcome him back, that one is a little bit tougher to answer.
Over the years we’ve seen more iconic figures leave Cleveland than in any other city (and to paraphrase Bill Simmons, we will not argue that point) and for a variety of reasons.
Jim Brown famously walked away from the Browns in 1966 – never to return – because Art Modell wanted to prove to everyone how tough he was.
Rocky Colavito was traded by the Indians in 1960 to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn.
Paul Warfield was traded by the Browns in 1970 to Miami for a bag of magic beans (actually “can’t miss” quarterback Mike Phipps. Worried Browns fans?)
More recently, pitchers C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee were traded by the Indians because they were headed to free agency. Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome all left as free agents.
But LeBron was different.
Belle was driven by a desire to be the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball; he didn’t care where it was. Ramirez was led by his agent to sign with the Red Sox. The Indians were financially unable to match the Phillies’ contract offer to Thome.
But LeBron didn’t have to leave Cleveland for more money; the NBA doesn’t operate like Major League Baseball. No, he turned his back on us and expected us to understand.
So would the fans embrace him if he returned?
There are plenty of people who claim they never would, but the thing about fans is that winning cures a lot of ills. Mike Lupica wrote, when the Yankees traded for Roger Clemens, that Yankee fans would cheer for the former Red Sox pitcher under the fan credo of “our guy, their jerk.”
If on opening night of the 2015 or 2016 NBA season, the Cavs were raising a championship banner to the rafters, would anyone care about what happened in the summer of 2010?
We are also of the strong belief that if it says Cleveland on the front of the jersey, then we are rooting for that particular player. It does no good to root for a Cleveland team or a Cleveland player to fail; we’re just not wired that way.
But probably the biggest question in this one: Should Cavs fans want LeBron back?
James won’t be a free agent until after the 2014 season. When the 2014-15 NBA season starts that fall, he will be a few months shy of his 30th birthday, with more than 850 regular season games and (probably) more than 150 post-season games on his resume.
That’s a lot of wear and tear on someone’s knees, ankles and back – no matter how good of shape they are in.
After four years with Detroit and one with Kansas City, Colavito returned to the Indians in 1965 at age 31. He hit .287 his first year with 108 RBIs, but dropped off to .238 the next season with 72 RBI. He batted .241 in 1967 in just 63 games before being traded again, this time to the White Sox.
Warfield returned to the Browns in 1976 after spending five years with the Dolphins and one in the World Football League. At age 34, he had 38 receptions in 1976 and 18 receptions in 1977 before retiring.
And Thome returned to the Tribe this year after an eight-year absence for a 22-game cameo.
If he were to come back, would LeBron have anything left to give the Cavs at that stage of his career? As good as he may be, the reality is that he most likely will no longer be the top dog after the age of 30.
Plus it simply could never be the same if he returned. Even though the Cavs fell short of a championship during James’ seven years with the team, they were fun times, no matter who it ended. Game 5 vs. Detroit, the back-to-back teams with 60+ wins, the rebirth of a dormant franchise.
Those were special times that could never happen again.
But does all that mean we wouldn’t want to try and recreate the magic one more time?
Check back with us in July of 2014.