LeBron James apparently wasn’t waiting for the front office to handle all the recruiting.
Former Cavaliers guard Delonte West said James floated the idea of joining Cleveland while the two were on the floor against each other, during a game in Seattle. West made the claim during an appearance on the ODEE ENTV YouTube channel, via HoopsHype.
“We were playing Cleveland, out in Seattle, the first month of the season, and I was cooking them,” West said. He added that he and James were at the foul line when LeBron mentioned having watched him at Saint Joseph’s and then made the pitch.
“He was like, man, you want to come play with Cleveland?” West recalled.
“I thought he was just doing a veteran trick. … I thought he was just trying to get me out of my game by getting familiarity.
But he was serious.”
West eventually landed in Cleveland in February 2008, arriving as part of a huge three-team, 11-player deadline deal. Once he got there, he became a real part of the rotation right away, starting all 26 games he played after the trade.
The next season turned out to be West’s best in the NBA. He posted a career-high 11.7 points per game and started 64 times for a Cavaliers team that finished 66-16.
West spent parts of three seasons with the Cavs overall and appeared in 35 playoff games for the franchise. Looking back, it sounds like James may have been doing more than talking at the line - he may have been building the roster in real time.
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Now James is set to be on the opposite sideline after signing with the 76ers, which only adds a little extra edge to a meeting that was already going to draw attention. The Cavaliers do not need a former locker-room anecdote to understand the stakes of that opener, but Wests recollection gives it a familiar layer of history. For Cleveland, it is another example of how James' old influence around the franchise keeps resurfacing just as a new season begins. [Read more 🡒]
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Indiana remains the matchup Cleveland seems least eager to see again, not because the Cavaliers lack talent, but because the Pacers strengths line up with so many of the small postseason problems that can swing a series. For a team with bigger ambitions, solving that one opponent may matter almost as much as the broader conference picture, since the road in the East could still run straight through the same uncomfortable test. [Read more 🡒]