As if there was not enough ammunition for LeBron critics and media talking heads to discuss about his every moves, he just lobbed them another gold nugget. During shoot around practice held in Cleveland on the day before the Heat face the Cavaliers LeBron was asked about the possibility to return to Cleveland.
"“I don’t know. I think it would be great,” he said. “It would be fun to play in front of these fans again. I had a lot fun times in my seven years here. You can’t predict the future and hopefully I continue to stay healthy. I’m here as a Miami Heat player, and I’m happy where I am now, but I don’t rule that out in no sense.“And if I decide to come back, hopefully the fans will accept me.”"
Time to initiate fan over reaction sequence. When that quote hit the radio waves, television and internet it sparked a whole ton of discussion questioning whether LeBron was sincere or just trying to gain some possible respect back from the hometown fans he spurred two years ago. While I would greatly appreciate if LeBron could avoid some of these loaded questions so we could discuss the historic season he is currently having, it’s hard for him to do that with a microphone shoved in his face during every moment he isn’t playing a game. I’ve started to here some Heat fans in Miami feel disrespected by the comment and now wanting Riley to consider trading LeBron for Howard. It’s absolutely outrageous how over-reactionary the fan base, and fan bases in general, are.
I honestly didn’t look too much into the comments made by LeBron but I couldn’t help getting annoyed by the remarks by others about his comments. Some questioning if he is “having fun” or “truly happy” in Miami is absurd. I always figured there was a possibility of LeBron going back to Cleveland when his contract with Miami since it is his hometown and something tells me he feels genuinely disappointed he couldn’t bring a championship to his hometown. So while others clamor over his comments and attempt to over analyze them, I’ll be watching Lebron and the Miami Heat make their way back to the NBA Finals where they will look to win two more games in that series than they did a year ago.
A note on the recent win streak including the back to back to back road trip: The Miami Heat became the first team since the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks to win all three games by ten or more points. Can you guess what that Bucks team went on to do that year? That’s right, they won the NBA title. Here’s to hoping history repeats itself in that regard.