The first time LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, he became an instant enemy. In fact, he perhaps became the most hated man in town, even more so than Art Modell, the man who moved the original Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in the mid-1990s.
But James returned in 2014 and delivered the Cavs their first NBA championship two years later, which made amends for his unceremonious departure in 2010. When he left again in 2018 and joined the Los Angeles Lakers, there weren’t really any hard feelings.
On Saturday, the Lakers visited the Cavs, meaning James made his annual return to his old stomping grounds. During the first quarter of L.A.’s 121-115 win, the Cavs organization played a moving video on the big screen at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to pay tribute to its greatest player.
All love for the King in Cleveland 👑
The @cavs pay tribute to LeBron in his return! pic.twitter.com/LkcyPM2ZNf
— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 26, 2023
James has had a history of putting up big numbers when returning to Cleveland. Although Saturday wasn’t one of those nights (he scored just 22 points on 8-of-23 shooting), his current team gained an important victory to start its four-game road trip on a positive note.
James reflects on his two stints in Cleveland
Although the NBA’s all-time leading scorer has won championships with each of the three teams he has played for, he will likely be most associated with the Cavs.
He played 11 seasons with the organization, and the Akron, Ohio, native is one of the few pro athletes who had a chance to play for his hometown team.
After Saturday’s contest, he looked back on his two stints with Cleveland (h/t Lakers Nation).
LeBron James speaks on the importance of AD’s touches and emotions returning to back to Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/1hfWP4ujDR
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 26, 2023
“I think for one, you able to come on this floor and obviously keeping the main thing is trying to get a win. We want to continue to get better as a franchise, as Lakers going through this season. But it’s always special to come back here and I felt the feeling of it as well when we went back to Miami just knowing the history. But I think a little more here because I spent 11 years here. I did four years in Miami, but I spent 11 years here and being able to come back after my Miami stint and win a championship here for this franchise, for this city, I think it was like a 52-year drought or something like that in the city of Cleveland for any sports team, I think that was just something I’ll never forget. No matter how old I get, I’ll always remember that moment. So stepping back on the floor is always a pretty cool feeling looking up there and just being a part of pretty much all the banners in this arena. And the No. 1 banner, the one that sits in the middle was that ’16 championship, so that’s pretty cool… It’s very special. To be a kid from Akron, I grew up 30 miles from here. To be able to be drafted here and spend my first seven years here and then come back for four more years and do some special things that the franchise had never seen. When I was drafted, I said I wanted to light this place up like Vegas so I feel like I did a decent job of doing that while I was here for my 11 years.”
At age 38 going on 39, James will not have that many trips back to Cleveland to play in an NBA game.
