The Cleveland Cavalier are the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and are gearing up to make a return to the NBA Finals, but that’s not what’s being discussed in the headlines right now; the focus is on LeBron James. On Saturday he spent the halftime warmup talking and laughing with Dwyane Wade, instead of with his teammates, he spent extra time in Miami, sending out cryptic tweets and now the news of him wanting to play with “The Brotherhood”, which includes Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul. The Cavs apparently had enough.
According to Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon, all of these events finally culminated with Cavs GM David Griffin and head coach Tyronn Lue having a discussion with James about his actions:
Griffin’s talk with James on Wednesday afternoon was a little more general, but was sparked by James’ comments to The Bleacher Report that he wanted to play with Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul on the same team for a “year or two.”
Lue said James apologized to him for his behavior at halftime Saturday night, and Griffin’s discussion with James was positive and productive, with James echoing recent public statements about an upward trend for the Cavs heading into the playoffs.
But perhaps James’ sharpening can be traced at least in part to the discussion he had with Lue, in which the coach told him his interactions with Wade sent the wrong message to his teammates.
“I just told him we can’t have that, being down like we were and him being the leader,” Lue told cleveland.com. “Just me being a competitor, I didn’t like it. We had a long talk about it. It was good. He understood, he apologized, and he’s been great.”
