LeBron James: The return of the King

LeBron James

Fans were angered by James’ move to Heat

“In this fall — this is very tough — in this fall I am taking my talents to South Beach and play with the Miami Heat, I feel like this is going to give me the best opportunity to win and to win for multiple years.” With these words, Lebron James joined the Miami heat on the 9th of July 2009 along with Chris Bosch, who was joining him from Toronto Raptors. The reason was simple. Both of them wanted to play championship basketball. They were tired of bringing in the attack for their team day in and day out and not reap the benefits at the end of the day. While the decision was really simple for Bosh, it got a little nasty when it came to King James.

His decision was not received well by fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Aggravated fans burnt his jersey which was worshipped for seven years. Dan Gilbert, who owns a majority stake of the Cleveland Cavaliers wrote an open letter (almost immediately) to all the fans calling his actions as selfish and callous. He went on to say that “I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.” One can say that his anger was justified considering that Lebron James informed his team about his decision minutes before he made his announcement on national TV. Fast forward 4 years ahead, and he is back “home”. Lebron James made his decision to return back to Cleveland for a second stint with the team. Surprisingly, it looks like all has been forgotten between Gilbert and James and James will be sporting the number 23 again for the Cavaliers this season. In this article, we shall look into the rise, fall, exit and return of the “King”.

Impressive start

Let’s start from the beginning. Lebron James was born in Akron, Ohio on the 30th December 1984. He played high school basketball for his school at St. Vincent-St. Mary high school. After graduating, Lebron James was the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft. It was a hard fought battle that Cavaliers had to fight to sign him up. That year’s draft some of the biggest names of the current basketball era viz. Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosch and Dwyane Wade. He had, what I would say, one of the best rookie seasons anybody else has had. He became the youngest player to score 40 points in a game, and he was just 19 years old. This was a record. He had a 41% field goal conversion rate, a 29% 3 point conversion rate, almost 6 steals per game and rebounds per game and averaged 20 points in a game. He became the third rookie to average 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game in their rookie year. The other two were Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan! Despite all this, Cavaliers weren’t able to make it to the play-offs. It was clear by the end of the 2003-04 season, King James had arrived, and he was here to stay!

In the remaining years with Cavaliers, James bolstered the attack for the Cavs while he broke record after record every season. He became the youngest player to score a triple-double i.e. having double digits in three out of the five statistical categories viz. points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots. Again, despite having a brilliant start, the Cavs failed to make it to the playoffs that year with a 42-40(wins-loss) record. In 2006, Lebron won his first All-Star game for the East and was the youngest player to be awarded the MVP (Most Valuable Player) at 21 years. He also led the Cavaliers to their first playoffs since 1998. He scored the second triple double of his career while playing the Washington Wizards. They beat the Wizards but went on to lose to the Detroit Pistons in the next round. In his 2007-08 campaign with the Cavs, he set a new team and personal record by scoring 7 triple doubles in that season. He also played a great game against the Boston Celtics, where he scored 45 points vs. Paul Pierce’s 41. In his 2009 season, James led the Cavs to the NBA finals. But again, despite scoring the game winner in game 2 and averaging 38 points for the team, Cavs lost the series in 6 games.

Important addition to Heat

Maybe this was the turning point in Lebron James’ career. He did not take the loss very well as he left the court without shaking hands and without making any comments. In the 2009-10 season, he was made to shift his role from a shooting guard to a point guard to help the team cope up with injuries. The Cavs lost to the bulls that season. James scored only 15 points on the night and was heavily booed by crowds who felt he didn’t play to the best of his efforts.

On July 1st 2010, Lebron James became an unrestricted free agent. On July 8th 2010, he announced to the world that he would be joining the Miami Heat along with close friend Chris Bosh. He broke the news to Dan Gilbert and the rest of the members at Cleveland five minutes before the live telecast. James went from being the “King” to being the villain overnight. Letters were written and jerseys were burnt, but it did not stop him.

After joining the Miami Heat, Lebron James was where he wanted to be- among the champions. Miami were struggling after their 2005-06 championship season (where they lost to the Dallas Mavericks 3-4). Dwayne Wade would have some injury issues in the coming seasons and Shaquille O’Neal would be traded to the Phoenix Suns. But nevertheless, Miami Heat made it to the playoffs three times out of four. With all the coaching changes and player changes that was actually pretty impressive from Heat. Now, with the force with them, they were ready to bounce back. Initially, it was hard. Miami started the season off to an 8-14 record. After an “only-player’s meeting”, they regrouped and results were now visible. They entered the playoffs that year finishing at 2nd seed behind the Chicago Bulls. They went on to win the Eastern Conference and come to the finals, where they had a re-match with the Dallas Mavericks. They took a lead in the third game beating the Mavs 88-86. They would go on to lose the championship 4-2 but a lot of positive signs were visible. They went on to the finals of the consecutive season to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 4-1. James was named the MVP. After all this, he was still referred to as the bad guy. Except for Heat fans, no one liked him. They detested the way he left the team for dead, how he deceived his teammates and betrayed the trust of the fans. He later on regretted the way he departed the team. That did not change much. Anyways, he played his game and won two championship rings with the Miami Heat.

Second Homecoming

Then, the question arises - Where did it all go wrong? Lebron James is a sort of player who is looking for a backup plan. He knows that he will have his bad days and he wants someone else to step up that time. That is how teams win championships. Take the San Antonio Spurs for example, they may not have a player who scores 30 points a game, but they have 3 to 4 players who score just under 20 points per game. Not to forget they have players like Danny Green and Marco Belinelli who really can buck up and score a good chunk if none of them perform on a night. Wade in comparison was scoring just over 30 points per game (2008-09) as compared to this year where he has just managed 19 points. Lebron James has been averaging just over 27 points per game! To add to this, major forwards such as Bosh (16.2 PPG), Chalmers (9.8 PPG), Allen (9.6 PPG) are all not playing up to the mark. In fact, in the 2013 conference finals he said that he was starting to feel the weight of responsibility that he had during his Cleveland days. He has had enough of that responsibility and wants to go back “home”.

Cavaliers have gone major changes after Lebron left the team in 2010. The entire coaching staff has changed and they have been very lucky in the draft. Not to forget they have a few good players in the form of Kyle Irving. He averaged around 20 points per game last season. They also have a very good team of 3 point shooters in their roster. This could help Lebron, who would be looking for some support from downtown while he tries to sort out matters in the paint. The fans have seem to have accepted his decision to come back and Gilbert has also asked the NBA to take down his letter he had written where he belittled Lebron James. He has also decided to wear his old #23 jersey. In a recent poll conducted, it was showing that Lebron James is gaining the favour of the public back. As a basketball fan, I wish Lebron James all the very best on his second stint with his old team. But he will have to lead the team back there again, there is no two ways about it. After all, if a king will not lead, who will?