Report: Cavs Not Interested In Bringing Back LeBron James After Seeing LA Collapse

LeBron James sounds like a guy who knows he’s not going to be in LA for too much longer.

During the All-Star Weekend, LeBron was open about his wanting to join a team that will draft his son, Bronny, when he becomes available. And he also said he wouldn’t close the door on a return to Cleveland some day.

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LeBron said “the door’s not closed” on another return to Cleveland, so we asked Cavs fans if they think King James will really come home again 👀 pic.twitter.com/Gdd6b98JWE

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 20, 2022

Although LeBron James would undoubtedly excite the Cavaliers fan base if he were to return home (again), reports are indicating that the Cavs brass is just fine.

Via Marc Stein’s Substack, transcribed by SB Nation

“As far as the Cleveland thing, look, I wrote it in my Monday piece that based on what I was hearing, if we could get the true, unfiltered thoughts of Dan Gilbert and Koby Altman — first of all, they can’t publicly say anything about LeBron publicly, he’s a Laker, a player on another team — but I wrote it Monday, and I believe even more strongly now based on subsequent conversations: The Cavs do not want to do a third LeBron dance. This franchise, this organization, this ownership, this front office, they’ve had to hear, for a zillion years, ‘you’ve never done anything without LeBron, LeBron is your only path to relevance and success, there hasn’t been a playoff berth without LeBron since ‘98.’

“They’ve built something really special in Cleveland. Something with long-term prospects in addition to how well they’re doing in the short term… If we could get their unfiltered thoughts, I really don’t think they want to remarry LeBron James and Klutch Sports, because when LeBron is with the team, he puts a lot of pressure on the front office. He puts a lot of pressure on ownership. He wants to call the shots, and I don’t think they want to live that life again. They lived it in two previous stints, and hey, it got them a championship.

“LeBron is the ultimate Cleveland sports hero, he led the Cavs to a comeback from 3-1, something no one had ever come back from… and it was the first championship of any kind for Cleveland in 32 years, you cannot take any of that away from him… But I think, truth be told, they would prefer not to welcome him back, and they want to see what they can build around this amazing young group that they have right now.

LeBron James might still have all the love in the world for Cleveland and their franchise. But at the end of the day, there are just much better fits for the veteran superstar than his old stopping ground.

But it’ll be interesting to see what the market ends up being for King James if he decides he’s had enough of LA following this season.

No matter what, LeBron James usually has these things pretty well-thought out. And he has a long track record of going to championship-caliber rosters. Perhaps he can still get to that point with different personnel in LA. But at this point, it’s starting to look like James’ next championship run will come elsewhere.

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