10 Harsh realities about LeBron James

#6 The narrative he gave to his Cleveland return is clearly misleading

The city Of Akron Celebrates The Return of Lebron James

During the offseason of 2014, LeBron James opted out of the final year of his contract with the Miami Heat and became an unrestricted free agent, choosing, later on, to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He stated the following in his Sports Illustrated essay announcing the same:

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'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 will be a long process, much longer than it was in 2010. I think I can help Kyrie Irving become one of the best point guards in our league. I think I can help elevate Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. And I can’t wait to reunite with Anderson Varejao, one of my favorite teammates.

What is curious here is the fact that he doesn't mention anything about mentoring Andrew Wiggins here at all, despite the fact that the Canadian one-and-done talent was selected by the Cavaliers with the #1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft.

Serious onlookers pondered whether he was being used as a makeweight for a trade, and their predictions came true when the Cavs traded for Kevin Love a month later. Bookies in Las Vegas promptly crowned the Cavs as favorites going into the regular season, and with good reason, for LeBron had again heavily stacked the odds in his favor.

Anderson Varejao was relegated to the deep end of the bench, Dion Waiters was sent to the Thunder and in came JR Smith and Iman Shumpert to take his place. So much for the talk of helping his teammates take the next step in their career progress.

The plain, unbiased reality is that LeBron saw the opportunity to conjure a better-equipped, younger Big 3 and extend his run of NBA Finals appearances during the offseason, and grabbed it with both hands. In doing so, he sided with an up-and-coming 2-time All-Star who was clearly already among the very best point guards in the league, and who didn't exactly need mentorship from The King.

Instead of taking time with the young pieces he had on his roster, LeBron went straight into win-now mode, despite repeatedly stating that he was excited by the challenge of guiding youngsters into stardom.