Cleveland Cavaliers legend LeBron James once decided to come off the bench to support and protect his teammate from getting booed.
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Having entered the league as an 18-year-old, LeBron James was no stranger to all the attention. The 4x NBA champion was expected to be great. While he had haters from day one, not even his biggest fan would have seen this level of success coming. The King has not only surpassed his expectations but exceeded them by a huge margin.
Over the course of his illustrious 19-year career, has broken many records comfortably and continues to do so, leaving us in awe. While he didn’t have the greatest season this year in terms of team success, The King still averaged 30 PPG at age 37, inching closer to Kareem’s scoring record in the process. While a lot of these records are longevity records, you still got to give credit where it’s due.
To put things into perspective, The king has played in 1,366 games over a 19-year span. You would expect someone like LeBron to start every single one of them. However, there was one game, in 2007, when the 18x All-Star came off the bench, and it was his own decision. So, why did he do it? Read on to find out….
LeBron James has the record for the most seasons averaging 25 + with 17. The second closest player has 12.
Greatest Longevity Of All Time. pic.twitter.com/OEQM3yVZiL
— Franklin (@ClappedFranklin) May 17, 2021
Why did LeBron James decide to come off the bench and help his teammate?
A sentence like ‘LeBron James to come off the bench’ just sounds wild. However, that did happen. Back in 2007, LeBron James was all set to return in a home game against the Indiana Pacers after missing games due to an injury to his finger. In fact, then Cavs coach Mike Brown was looking on putting his superstar back into the starting lineup. But actually, it was LeBron who convinced his coach to let him come off the bench this time. Here’s why:
LeBron’s teammate at the time, Anderson Varejao, was a free agent in 2007. The Cavs offered him a $1.2 million qualifying offer which Varejao turned down. His agent came back with a counter-offer of 52 million for six years. The Cavs turned them down as there was such a wide gap between the two sides. As a result, there was a holdout between the two parties.
Varejao wasn’t an NBA star by any sense of the word, but it was still a big deal. It was LeBron’s fifth year in the league, and there was a lot of pressure on the front office to surround the star with a championship-caliber roster. So, when the Bobcats offered the forward a 2-year $11 million deal, the Cavs had no option but to match it. However, since Varejao basically held out and even sat the first few games, Cavs fans were furious with him.
Anderson Varejao was aware of the fact that the Cavs fans were going to boo him. Entered LeBron James, the leader. The 18x all-star decided to come off the bench along with Varejao, so that all the attention would fall on the King, and also because he knew the Cavs fans wouldn’t boo if they entered the court at the same time.
Fun fact: LeBron has only come off the bench once. LeBron was returning from a finger injury and Anderson Varejao had just ended a messy contract holdout that had upset fans. LeBron asked to check in at the same time as Varejao so Andy wouldn’t be booed. https://t.co/bsranhTsCc
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) December 17, 2017
Wow! Who would have thought of LeBron James as the perfect teammate? Maybe he could have done the same with Russell Westbrook this season and deflected some of the hate Brodie got this season. Then again, with the way Westbrook played for the majority of the season, it’s hard not to boo him as a Laker fan. Also, we doubt Brodie would accept coming off the bench.
Anyhoo, credit to LeBron. At such a young age, he showed true leadership and even gave up on a personal record to help out his teammate. Now, that certainly doesn’t sound like LeBron in year 19. Times have changed, and so has the King.
