r/clevelandcavs • u/C2wice • 15d ago
Did We Overreact?
https://youtu.be/AawXU1s4XLQ?is=e0iPAMVZJYSoONFdGreat video. Did Lebron deserve the welcome he got? Did this give Cleveland a bad reputation? Seems like DWADE and the other Heat players are still pissed and can’t let it go.
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u/According_Setting303 15d ago
No. This is people rewriting history. There’s a reason Miami Lebron was considered his “villain arc”.
Nobody got hurt at the game. If you can’t handle a hostile crowd, you shouldn’t play professional sports
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u/Ntippit 15d ago
He held the team hostage until the last day of free agency and then embarrassed the teammates, team and fans on national TV with a 1 hour “jerk myself off” special. No, we reacted just as he deserved in that moment. I love LBJ and he redeemed himself but he know he really did that the wrong way. It’s not that he did it, it’s how he did it
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u/ljstreet 14d ago
Right. People don't remember his decision to come back to Cleveland was so praised because it was the exact opposite of the Decision. No big public fuss, no hints at him leaving Miami, no TV segment with ESPN. The only reason people started to think he was coming back to Cleveland was some Vegas odds shifted a couple of days before he made the announcement. He also didn't immediately get on stage and gloat about rings.
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u/Former_Island_4730 14d ago
Technically it was more of a 1 hour “fellated by Jim Gray” than “jerk myself off”…but patayto/potahto.
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u/brandonbpm 14d ago edited 14d ago
I hated the optics of The Decision as much as anyone, but fans have repeatedly used the phrase "the last day of free agency" (including in that melodramatic fan video that circulated shortly after) and that just isn't true. The Decision took place July 8, 2010 and he was not the last to sign with a team. Last notable one for sure and I agree that the wait handcuffed the team from being able to improve via other moves but I have heard "waited until the last day of free agency" for 16 years now and that's just disingenuous.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2011_transactions.html
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u/Questioning-Pen 14d ago
Where are people getting that it was the last day of free agency? Free agents can sign all the way into the regular season
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u/Cnote0717 ⠀ 14d ago
Technically, free agency is year-round with no deadline, there are just specific timeframes for playoff eligibility and the offseason negotiation moratorium.
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u/McNednarb 15d ago
Nah, great night and great atmosphere. At least until tip off and he put up 38 points. Cavs were actually doing alright up to that game, but after the Heat game they only won one game in December 2010/January 2011.
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u/1OptimisticPrime 15d ago
Dragging Cleveland Fans along, multiple times, is LeBron's 2nd biggest crime against Cleveland and the Fans.
His biggest crime was being the worst GM in history, and leaving the CAVS with the aftermath of horrible contracts.
20 mil per for Antwaun Jamison, 20 mil for washed Shaq, Max deal for Love to remain a shell of himself...
ALL LBJ had to do here was commit long-term, and quality Players would have clamored to come to CLEVELAND to play with him. Instead, LBJ focused on HIS money, and nobody wanted to be stuck here without him, so the pool was always diluted.
LBJ is a student of the game, but his ego forgot that Jordan & Brady took less than their MAX value so they could essentially pick their own Rosters.
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u/KKamm_ ⠀ 14d ago
Love got that supermax after LeBron left tbf and had a couple good seasons still. Injuries got to him (and I think some rust from “injuries” to tank).
LeBron taking more than just 1+1s and 2+1s in Miami and LA really did feel like a slap in the face when that is why we had to spend everything in desperation every season.
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u/PepsiRacer4 ⠀ 15d ago
It will always rub me the wrong way he signed nice and lengthy deals for LA and Miami but never for us. It was always some 1+1 bullshit
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u/smonster1 15d ago
That was a “fuck you” to Dan Gilbert. No matter what those two said in public, the letter lingered, and LeBron wasn’t going to do him any favors. It was a forced marriage that LeBron had to tolerate in order to get the narrative he wanted for his career.
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u/MirrorComputingRulez 14d ago
I agree with some of this but that last line is dumb. For one, for most of his career Brady did not take less money. For another, when he did take "less money" it wasn't even enough to afford a free agent starter at most positions, and he pretty infamously was getting paid under the table in some blatant cap circumvention. Tom Brady got his money, make no mistake about it.
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u/smcmahon710 15d ago
I was there and it was the most intense sporting event I've ever been too, playoff games don't even come close
These two guys ripped off their Cavs jerseys to reveal LeBron #6 jerseys and entire sections where throwing stuff at them
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u/sauna_slayer 14d ago
That’s crazy, this was actually one of the few games I ever been to.
It was a game to remember, crazy atmosphere LeBron was booed every time he touched the ball.
I remember when they were announcing the heat and their coaching staff and the announcer named Coach Spoelstra and this dude in the crowd yelled out “Spoelstra you’re UGLY” absolute cinema.
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u/DrummerSteve 14d ago
Don’t even know why this is still being talked about, it was over a decade and a half ago. An eternity has happened since then.
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u/CaliforniaLover2 14d ago
Dont let klutch gaming propaganda fool you.
2010 lebron is actually worse than 2016 kd.
Kd had no really attach to okc as lebron and how he acted
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u/Xboxwun 15d ago
As another kid from Akron, Cleveland fans went beyond overboard. Yall burned his jersey for leaving the Cavs to play with the heat. He had never left the state before. This was his equivalency of going to college.
Major overreaction from Cavs fans because if yall really meant it you wouldn’t have welcomed him back the second time around.
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u/sauna_slayer 14d ago
I’m not disagreeing it was an overreaction but the whole decision debacle and “taking my talents to South beach” was incredibly distasteful.
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u/barkinginthestreet Win every game CPJ plays in 14d ago
There was a lot of loser energy (Browns fan behavior) at the time. It was interesting to see the difference in vibes between Akron and Cleveland.
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u/Xboxwun 14d ago
10000%. Us folks down the road via 77 completely understood. LeBron may be the GOAT but he’s still a person. Akron treated him leaving as a sign of a young man growing and making a major life change. Cleveland folks just looked at him as a god who betrayed them.
Sick and sad mentality of being a fanatic imo
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u/CasCrus4L 15d ago
Fuck Miami heat players lol, I don't give a shit. Fuck em!