LeBron James’ fingerprints are officially all over the Cleveland Cavaliers organization.
For the first time since “The Decision,” the four-time league MVP and team execs shared the same space on Tuesday, as The King graced Quicken Loans Arena with his presence and Cavs’ brass with the face-to-face opportunity to pick his brain during a high-stakes strategy session.
James met with rookie coach David Blatt and recently, permanently installed GM David Griffin presumably to weigh the merits and virtues of blending his all purpose game with that of slick All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and potentially the equally seasoned Kevin Love, a proposition that is now rumored to be more a matter of “when” as opposed to “if,” even if it means sacrificing prized top draft pick Andrew Wiggins.
Since making the announcement he planned to take his talents from South Beach back to his roots in Cleveland, James’ schedule hadn’t allowed him to actually meet with Cavs execs before now, though clearly he has been hard at work in crafting the team’s roster, successfully recruiting former teammates Mike Miller and James Jones and rumored to now be working on Ray Allen and Shawn Marion.
Whoever proves to be on hand for training camp in Cleveland can expect to encounter a different LeBron James. The league’s consensus top performer is rumored to be on a reduced carbs diet that has already resulted in him dropping at least 10 pounds since his Miami Heat were run out of the building by the much older San Antonio Spurs in the NBA finals.
Before the start of the series, many would have told you the prospect of that happening was about as unlikely as James announcing he would be returning to the banks of Lake Erie. But that now all seems like water under the bridge, even James’ once thought to be irreparably scarred relationship with owner Dan Gilbert, who deemed James’ decision to leave in the first place a “cowardly act” for which he assured Cavs’ fans their native son would be forever cursed and the Cavs’ would win a championship long before The King would ever grace the throne.
But on Tuesday, here they all were, all in the same room, all of the same mind, all members of the same organization. Indeed, winning or, in this case, even the even prospect of it certainly seems to have cured all.
