On July 8th, 2010, LeBron James infamously announced that he would be leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and that he would be joining the Miami Heat. Now unless you were a Heat fan, you most likely reacted negatively to this news either because you didn’t like that James was going to play with other All Stars or because he didn’t chose to come to your team. Although we repeatedly wondered “why would he go to Miami?” We should’ve been asking ourselves “Why would LeBron leave Cleveland?”
James was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. Prior to life in the NBA it was the only home he ever knew. Akron is only forty four minutes away from Cleveland by car, so James was very attach to the sports of Cleveland. Cleveland has three major sports and had (at the time) the longest city championship drought in America, not having a team win a championship since 1964 when the Cleveland Browns (NFL) won. Therefore when James was drafted by the Cavaliers he promised to win them a championship.
During his first tenure with the Cavaliers James was superb. James led the Cavaliers to the playoffs every single year except one, which was his rookie year and the Cavaliers missed them due losing a tiebreaker with another team. In 2007, James led the Cavaliers all the way to the NBA Finals. That’s where the beginning of James departure from Cleveland began. During the FInals many analysts began to notice how little help James had to combat the defensive pressure from the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs would force James to take tough shots or to give up the ball to teammates who weren’t really shooters. The Spurs would go on to sweep the Cavaliers in the Finals. Although the Cavaliers would bring in four time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal to help James offensively O’Neal was on his last legs as he was playing in his second to last season in the NBA.
So due to the lack of support from his teammates on the offensive end, James decided to go join the Miami Heat. Many point to Dan Gilbert’s, the owner of the Cavaliers, letter as the reason why James left but people forget that Gilbert wrote the letter after James made his decision. James’ main reason for leaving Cleveland was because he couldn’t see himself with them in the near future. James however had a change of heart and decided to rejoin the Cavaliers in the summer of 2014. Two years later James would help the Cavaliers win a championship, ending the city’s drought and fulfilling his promise that he made to the city nearly 15 years ago.
Balling with Beni 