James’ status is undoubtedly the number one among active players, the top three in history, and the man with the most basketball fans around the world. However, no matter how strong a person is, he will not be perfect. James has also had some controversies in his career. The most discussed point is that he left the Cavaliers to join the Heat in 2010.
James was born in Akron, so Cleveland is actually his hometown team. When the Cavaliers won the No. 1 pick, many local fans were so happy that they cried. In the Cavaliers, James quickly became the savior. He was selected as an All-Star starter in the second year of his career, led the team to the playoffs in the third year, and directly reached the finals in the fourth year. In 2009 and 2010, the Cavaliers It has reached the top of the regular season for two consecutive years, and James has also won the MVP title for two consecutive years, and he is in the limelight. But because the Cavaliers have always had flaws in their lineup, except for James, they have no second absolute strength, so it is difficult to break through in the playoffs. In the three years since 2007, they have never reached the finals. He was eliminated twice by the Celtics.
The continuous setbacks also damaged James' confidence and caused many doubts. Especially in the last two games against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2010, James seemed to have given up on the game. In fact, he was injured at the time. The 10-year Cavaliers already look like a mess. There are too many veterans, their salaries are exploding, and there are very few people who can truly share James' pressure. It just so happened that James' contract expired, and he was also thinking about his future. If he continued to stay in the Cavaliers, his hope of winning the championship was slim. Because the city is small (Cleveland only has 300,000 people) and unattractive, it is basically impossible to get a lottery pick if you lead the team, so it is difficult to strengthen the team. So in the end, James chose to join the Heat and form the Big Three with Wade and Bosh to compete for the championship.
His decision was made on live television. Many hometown fans saw this scene and were heartbroken. Some people started burning his jersey that day. In fact, James doesn't want to leave, but the situation really doesn't give him a choice. Then in 2014, James returned to Cleveland from Miami and led the team to win the championship in 2016. In outside terms, James was like going to college for 4 years and then returning to his hometown to contribute. He actually had a clear conscience. .
In addition to many people, James joined the Heat as a free agent, but that is not the case. After announcing the difficult decision to leave, James felt extremely tormented, wondering if he could do anything more for his hometown. Ever since, there was a sign-and-trade deal.
The Heat used their 2013 and 2015 first-round picks, as well as two second-round picks, a 2012 draft pick swap, plus a 14.5 million trade exception. The Cavaliers did not use the draft pick swap and trade exceptions, so it was basically a 4-for-1 deal for the Heat to get James. Many fans also wonder, doesn't the transaction require salary balancing? We have to admire the shrewdness of the Heat management. They have long planned to form a powerful team in the summer of 2010, so they have controlled the salary space in advance. Before signing James, the salary was far below the salary cap, so there was no need to balance the salary and trade directly. Bosh joined directly as a free agent, and finally extended Wade's contract.
Although the Cavaliers had no record breakthrough in the four years since James left, they also acquired a lot of potential stocks because of their poor performance. As soon as James returned, they immediately traded for Love. , immediately became one of the favorites to win the championship.