Brian Windhorst wasn’t buying the latest LeBron James rumor, and he made that clear Friday when a wild Cleveland storyline started racing around the internet.
The buzz began with a Northeast Ohio cupcake shop owner - the same person whose hints about James’ 2014 return to Cleveland once went viral - claiming on Thursday night that LeBron is headed back to the Cavaliers and would be bringing Draymond Green with him. The idea spread quickly through social media and even made its way onto ESPN Cleveland’s airwaves.
But when Windhorst was asked directly on ESPN Cleveland whether James could be recruiting Green to the Cavs, he shut it down.
“I have not heard that from a credible source,” Windhorst said.
That didn’t completely kill the conversation, though. Earlier Friday, longtime Cavs reporter Sam Amico was asked the same basic question on BIGPLAY Cleveland and took a much less definitive stance.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Amico said.
The two responses weren’t really the same kind of answer. Windhorst was talking about sourcing, while Amico was talking about possibility. And with James still being discussed as a real Cleveland possibility this summer, the idea of anything involving a Klutch Sports client getting ruled out entirely was never going to last long.
Still, the actual trail on Green points in the opposite direction.
Green is a free agent after declining his $27.7 million player option with the Golden State Warriors on June 29, a move that even surprised his own front office. The next morning, he addressed it on his podcast and explained that the decision was made to help Golden State, not to leave it.
“It’s more like an alma mater for me,” Green said of the Warriors.
That flexibility, by the credible reporting around the league, is tied to the Warriors’ pursuit of James. Around the same time Windhorst was knocking down the Cleveland version of the rumor, James’ agent Rich Paul was making the basketball case for the Golden State angle, telling Max Kellerman that a healthy Warriors team with James would be a nightmare to deal with.
“You definitely don’t want to play them in a playoff series healthy,” Paul said.
Paul also said James is taking his time with the decision and enjoying the break with family and friends, which lines up with what his camp has been signaling since the start of the month.
So why did the rumor catch fire at all? Because the pieces around it are messy enough to invite speculation.
Green, James and Anthony Davis are all represented by Klutch Sports, and the idea that their situations are being coordinated has been floating around all week. Bill Simmons even argued on Thursday’s episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that Golden State was being used as leverage in James’ process - partly, in his telling, to get Green paid - before saying James’ return to Cleveland is “done.”
That kind of chatter gives a rumor like this room to breathe, especially when the source has a track record. The cupcake shop owner’s 2014 hint about James’ return turned out to be right, and that old legend gave this latest claim instant oxygen.
But the basketball reality is a lot less romantic.
The Cavaliers are already pressed against the league’s punitive aprons before adding anyone, and the cap work needed to sign James would leave very little, if anything, for another veteran beyond minimum money. Green, who turned 36 this offseason, just gave up $27.7 million, and any realistic Cleveland path for him would be a fraction of that - and only after James chose the Cavaliers and the front office cleared the salary needed to make it happen.
So the cleanest read is also the simplest one. LeBron James to Cleveland is still very much alive.
Draymond Green to Cleveland is not backed by credible sourcing. And right now, that gap is the whole story.
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