Despite claiming to win 7 titles with the Miami Heat, LeBron James left the team on a sour note with the front office in just 4 years. After being furious with him for so long Pat Riley has finally come to terms with it.
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11 years ago LeBron James made a bold move by joining Miami Heat to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It attracted a lot of criticism from his hometown and the Cavaliers front office.
He went on to make 4 consecutive trips to the NBA finals with the Miami Heat and win 2 championships. The Miami Big 3 were considered unbeatable in the eastern conference. Pat Riley envisioned the trio winning 5-6 titles over the decade. However, the 4x MVP left them for his former team after 4 years. It did not sit right with the president at the time.
The disastrous last meeting between Riley and LeBron left the former furious. He says James was not interested in the discussion right from the beginning and kept getting distracted by the world cup match on the TV. Riley felt disrespected and believes he was very close to having the same reaction the Cavs front office did.
Years later, Riley reflected on the 2014 free agency meeting with LeBron James and the latter’s decision to leave in Ian Thomsen’s book.
Pat Riley claims LeBron James returned to the Cavaliers for acceptance in his hometown
The Miami Heat president seems to have come to terms with LeBron James’ departure and the reason behind it. LBJ had tensions with the front office and head coach Erik Spoelstra. However, Riley’s observations don’t seem entirely out the line either.
He believes that the major reason behind the King’s eventual return to Cleveland Cavaliers was to earn respect from his hometown. When James left in 2010 Cavs owner famously said “fans don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal”. People in Cleveland started burning his jerseys and several other notorious activities.
“I had two to three days of tremendous anger. My beautiful plan all of a sudden came crashing down,” Riley said. “That team in ten years could have won five or six championships. But I get it. I get the whole chronicle of [LeBron’s] life.”
“I just finally came to accept the realization that he and his family said, ‘You’ll never, ever be accepted back in your hometown if you don’t go back to try to win a title. Otherwise someday you’ll go back there and have the scarlet letter on your back. You’ll be the greatest player in the history of mankind, but back there, nobody’s really going to accept you.'”
The two never made an effort to keep in touch according to LeBron James. Pat Riley on the other hand says he tried to reach out to him before the historic Game 7 against Golden State Warriors in 2016.
“As soon as he hit the floor, I sent a text to him. I said, ‘Win this and be free.’ He never got back to me with a response.”
LeBron James came back 3-1 against the Warriors and brought home the championship trophy he promised his town. Riley claims he never hurt the 4x champion despite what he said in an ESPN interview after the huge victory in 2016.
