“LeBron James lost $6,000 in one night after arguing with Kane Fitzgerald”: How ‘The King’ was ejected from Cavaliers-Heat in first Cavs season without Kyrie Irving

LeBron James was ejected from a Cavaliers-Heat game in 2017, losing him $6,000 in total and marking it the first ejection of his career. 

LeBron James has had quite the clean resume over the course of 19 years in the NBA. In those 19 seasons, he’s only been ejected from a game twice. The most recent ejection was from this season where him and Detroit Pistons youngster, Isaiah Stewart, got into brawl that left Stewart in a bloodied mess. 

James would have to forfeit his game check of nearly $300,000 against the Pistons that night. Of course, this isn’t something would dent ‘The King’s’ billion dollar net worth but it’s certainly an amount that shouldn’t be looked down upon by any means.

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However, the first time that LeBron James found himself tossed from a game was something that was much milder than having a power forward with blood running down his face charge at full speed towards him. 

Instead, James merely got into a semi-heated argument with an official. 

LeBron James got tossed and had to pay $6,000. 

Feels a bit unfair that players have to pay money once they’ve been ejected. Well, that’s what happens with technical fines as a majority of them got for $2,000 a pop. LeBron James on the other hand, to pay up thrice the amount as he got himself ejected during a November game against the Miami Heat in 2017. 

This ejection was fairly simple as LeBron James barreled to the rim in hopes of drawing contact. He certainly did achieve that but no foul was called on the play despite him believing Hassan Whiteside fouled him. This infuriated the eventual 4x champ and led him to bark at official, Kane Fitzgerald.

LeBron James gets ejected for the first time in his 15-year NBA career. pic.twitter.com/qbnhDB8uZY

— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) November 29, 2017

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Fitzgerald had heard enough and T’d up James and eventually had him ejected with about 2 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. The Cavaliers had a sizeable 23 point lead over the Heat so it wasn’t an issue from that standpoint but it did ruin quite the streak for him. 

LeBron James had gone 1299 games without ever having been ejected and 14 years later, he finally experienced his first ejection. Since these were two techs he received before crossing 5 techs on the season, they both cost him $2K each. The ejection cost LeBron an extra $2,000, bringing his total losses on the night at $6,000.