Amid all the problems plaguing the Cavaliers this month, one underlying issue is LeBron James‘ frustration with the front office over not upgrading the roster, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Appearing on The Lowe Post podcast with ESPN’s Zach Lowe, Windhorst said James saw that the Cavs had a chance to land Paul George and Eric Bledsoe and was angry when both players ended up elsewhere.
Cleveland reportedly came close to acquiring George in a three-team trade shortly before the Pacers shipped him to the Thunder in early July. A deal was in place to trade Kevin Love to Denver in exchange for Gary Harris and the No. 13 pick, which the Cavaliers would have sent to Indiana to get George. Pacers president Kevin Pritchard had second thoughts about the trade and backed out before it was finalized.
The Cavaliers were also rumored to have interest in Bledsoe, who was among James’ summer workout partners and shares an agent in Rich Paul. Instead the Suns sent him to Milwaukee in exchange for little-used Greg Monroe and two draft picks.
“I’m sure if [Cavaliers owner] Dan Gilbert would ever speak freely, he probably never will, but he would say, ‘Well, I needed LeBron to commit past this year if I was going to trade, and LeBron wouldn’t commit, so therefore it’s LeBron’s fault this didn’t happen,'” Windhorst said. “Everybody’s going to have their own story. I’m just telling you that LeBron is there and he’s like, ‘We could have had Eric Bledsoe and Paul George, and instead we have a draft pick who I’m never going to meet [Brooklyn’s unprotected first-rounder] — Well, I don’t know about that, but I’m not meeting him this year — we have Isaiah Thomas, who is very clearly hampered and we have Jae Crowder, who’s having the worst year of his career.”
This offseason was the first for rookie GM Koby Altman, who was hired to replace David Griffin in late July. James had been a vocal defender of Griffin and questioned why the team refused to give him a new contract last season.
King Cry Baby
He really is.
And he also now needs to hold HIMSELF partially accountable for a rotten team culture that has cost his team many wins
I’m upset that the Spurs didn’t get Kyrie or CP3 so get over it LeBron m
I thought Big Baby announced he was going to play in the big 3 league. Didn’t realize he played for the Cavs. Basically LeBron proving he can only win if he has what he wants around him. Sour grapes.
Waaaaaa the little baby needs his pacifier. And this is what you people put over Michael Jeffrey Jordan? The man players were even afraid to trash talk on the court because they would get torched if they did? LMAO
LBJ should STF up and play defense.
Cry me a river Lebron.
I remember when he was pleading for the team to give Thompson the contract he currently has. I wonder if LeBron takes credit for that.
I do not remember that and I don’t think you do either. And the above quote is from Windhorst not James.
I remember when he was pushing for Thompson to get re-signed…are you going to tell me that I don’t remember either?
Probably. He knows you better than you know yourself
Its common knowledge that he secured Thompson that contract.
What a baby. Go play n shut up
Always hated that guy, but will love him if he puts on that purple and gold jersey next year…
Don’t want him…stick to the rebuild
LeBron had it right the first time:
” a draft pick who I’m never going to meet.”
Why should the owner or GM trade assets or the Brooklyn pic for this year and be hampered during the rebuild when LeBron leaves? This is LeBron’s Squad now he’s got to live with it.
If James said that, this article does not claim that. That was Windhorst speculating, IDK why.
Lebron is such a baby. Everything is about him. He may be the best player but not even close to best attitude
I’m sure LeBron constant complaining about the Cavs not trading for better players creates a great environment in the locker room. If I played on the Cavs wouldn’t even pass to LeBron, let him stand there and cry. Maybe Cavs should write an open letter complaining that the owners didn’t trade LeBron for a clearly better Durant.
And Dodgethis is the worst. That was not an “open letter” from James, it was not anything from James. It was Windhorst speculating in a conversation with someone else.
Twelve idiotic posts, some from posters who should know better, some from known idiots, all reduced to the same level of incomprehension and the very whining James is accused of and Dionis is famous for.
Now… if James did say those things… HE WOULD BE SOUNDING LIKE ANY OTHER CAVS FAN. Which he is, thankfully.
Dude you should go post on the LeBron James man crush website
Anyone heard of hearsay?
Give it up LeBaby will never pass Jordan. As long as that comparison stops Lebron could do whatever he wants I could care less. The media and tv is not feeding me stats and BS, we all know who the GOAT is. Mike never let someone else win Finals MVP over him, Lebron sure did(Kawhi,Iguodala,KD,Dirk,Parker). Tell Lebron go play football for a year and come back and win 2-3 titles like Mike.
Dude averaged a triple double on the finals last year… Dionis=king of trollbabys
I don’t care about those stats bro, did he win? Nope.
Stop this nonsense. Kevin Durant has taken the torch from LeBron already.
Giannis has taken it from Durant
It’s close!
I am also a suuuuper biased bucks fan
In fact, when the Cavs snubbed my Warriors I think Kyrie deserved that Finals MVP.. he won that series for them.
LeBron got the award based on prestige.
yeah, he was killed in last season of Game of Thrones
#DramaQueen
By the way, the Bucks-Suns Bledsoe trade was Monroe plus a single future 1st Round pick, not multiple picks. right…(unless I’m forgetting a highly protected 2nd rounder or something)…?
It also included the Bucks’ 2018 second-round pick (top-47 protected),
That was only if the pick was protected I believe
The pick was protected this year I should clarify
It’s independent from the first-round pick, but their protections do sort of link them (ie. first-round pick protected 17-30, second-round pick top-47 protected, so if Bucks get the 20th pick, the first-rounder will be protected and the second one won’t).
Ohhh ok, that makes much more sense. Thank you!
The rest of the team probably feels like when you’re really self-conscious about being overweight, but think nobody notices… and then a 7-year-old pokes you and asks why you’re so squishy.
So LeBron hand picked this team and he’s upset because they suck now? He ran Irving out of town, he’s running Love out of town and he only cares about his numbers. Why would any all-star caliber player want to play with him? It’s all about him.
Good short way of putting it!
LEBRON TO THE BUCKS!!!!!
This latest with Love tweeting he’d like to play on an all-star team with family friend Klay Thompson coming just after the team meeting shows the discord amongst the Cavs. I think it may have been Kyrie who told Jimmy Butler not to come to the Cavs because they had a mess. I remember former GM Dave Griffin talking all day on ESPN how it was difficult because LeBron controlled the franchise. We went down this road before. If LeBron doesn’t want to be here, he should let the Cavs trade him. This roster mess is on him. He made the Cavs get them.
It came out last summmer that what started the problems with Kyrie was LeBron asking the Cavs to get CP3 just after Kyrie had hit the winning shot to give the Cavs the NBA Championship.
Again. Making things up. Just a list of things that pass through your head.
You just don’t want to deal with the fact the Cavs and LeBron aren’t perfect. I didn’t make this up. If you don’t like it. Don’t read it. I can’t wait for LeBron and Love leave so Cav fans can wake up!
x%sure asked me where I got LeBron slowing Cavs down. I told him I Googled LeBron James slowing Cavs down and there are a few articles. HoopsRumors even printed it this week.
LeBron was playing basketball in Las Vegas last summer. If x%sure doesn’t want to believe LeBron was recruiting them, that’s up to him.
He was playing with Derrick Rose and Eric Bledsoe. Remember!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never said Cavs or James are perfect. I criticize them all the time. You’re the who calls him by his first name.
Never challenged you on James slowing things down; he has done that for over a decade with much success.
Of course he recruits, he is expected to or his critics would say he doesn’t care. You go farther, saying he determines the roster and say “all his buddies” when there are two.
Making things up.
To play with Klay Thompson in an all-star game, he’ll have to play in the Western Conference.
No. The sides are mixed this year. Go to bed. One stupid post after another.
I”m going to laugh so hard when contract is up after next next season. Because of you this will be my last post. I hope LeBron leaves and the Cavs stink! Later!
Kevin Durant is the best player in the NBA today!!! You don’t need to respond, I won’t read it!! Go Pacers!
Thank you man, Thomas Swanson only references articles he literally just read, with absolutely no insight to his own thought process which makes sense because I doubt he has a thought process. Just regurgitating information from Cavs beat writers. Good luck with that Joe Vardon Jr!!
The people reading Cleveland.com, ESPN, and the other sites have” very much larger viewing audiences” than this one, and I’m not the only one with this opinion. LeBron has a legacy, but it’s only in the Eastern Conference, and only with vets, he won’t play with youth. Then he leaves his team with a bunch of average old guys and no youth to work with. Unfortunately it takes him leaving to see LeBron. The Pacers got Oladipo and Sabonis. LeBron won’t do that for the Cavs. Now LeBron is playing with a bunch of old guys and losing, since all-star game of last season. He recruited all theses guys. He dug his own hole, now he can sleep in it. You don’t like Joe Vardon, you’d better go to another site. This sites writer gets his articles from him. I like this writer because he gets articles from other NBA cities. LeBron is great, not the greatest. KD is greatest now. I’m from a small market NBA town, and I like the little guys who don’t getthe attention, but are funner to watch.
Look at a Joe Vardon article sometime. The comments sometimes are in the hundreds with responses just like mine.
He doesn’t play with young players ooooooooo kkkkkkkkkkk. Because he’s always in the Finals!! With a top 4 record!! (which means 26-30th picks), they’re always signing vets with playoff experience, like sorry LeBron didn’t mentor every kid that came in and out of Cleveland. By the way, did Jordan or Kobe help out so much with inner city youth and vouch to get his friends paid? While still winning? When he left, they got what 3 out of 4 #1 picks while he won 2 in Miami (whose Big 3 was formed to beat the Celtics Big 3!) You can thank LeBron for those #1 picks. Kobe and Jordan were notoriously a**hole teammates who also never really played with young players. Both had much better coaches and teams around them. Kobe didn’t take Smush Parker under his wing alright. And why would I want to read more comments like yours lol? It’s damn near unbearable just reading yours I’m not trying to make myself crazy
You and x%sure have poor memories. The very first thing LeBron did coming back to Cleveland was to trade Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins and picks to Minnesota for Kevin Love. The Cavs didn’t have to sign all old veteran free agents, they could have signed young free agents. LeBron is screwing the Cavs if he leaves.
Most players do community work. You should see what Peyton manning has done. Indy was proud of him too. We call Lucas Oil Stadium “the house that Peyton Built” and have his statue outside. P.S. the Pacers made it to the Finals with Reggie, Dale and Antonio Davis, Jalen Rose, Rik Smits, and Mark Jackson. Larry Bird was coach. We lost to Kobe and Shaq. Oh well, it was fun.
1. Loves skillset > PG13 for THIS team. Able to be the Bosh.
2. Bledsoe trade was an overpay. A valuable expiring contract AND a 1st AND a 2nd for an oft injured guard, who was benched, didn’t fit their long term plans.
Save the LeDrama for your LeMama, LeBronna
Don’t be a LeDrama LeLlama
Knowbody cares what Lebronie has to say. He thinks he runs the NBA and the Refs. Can’t wait until he retires and stops bulling everyone around.
Maybe the organization, your teammates and the fans are upset that you’re not a better teammate. KI trade was amateur hour, but it wouldn’t have been needed if you knew how to be a true leader.
Good way to support a new teammate struggling to find a role and his rhythm by telling everyone he’s having the worst year of his career. I’m sure Crowder appreciates it.
This guy is superstar, but he is one of the worst team leaders. To have an elite player who is a coach and gm killer is a shame because he seems to be a good man and you never see his name in headlines about negative off- court behavior. This is what happens when a young athlete is conditioned to get what he wants and is pandered to by enablers. Lebron doesn’t get in trouble with the police, but man is he a temperamental child.
Windhorst always tries to come up with news when he hasn’t been on TV in a while. There is no reason James should be upset with the Cavs. They could not force Indy to make that trade. And if we gave up two picks for Bledsoe then Windhorst would say James is mad for giving up too much future for him. For how “basketball smart” everyone says James is, this makes him look stupid.
Lebron you are a player. You are not in charge of the front office so just do what you do and play basketball.