00:00I think there's only one fan base that could get really, really mad at him
00:03if he takes too long at this, and I think it's ours.
00:06Because we're kind of, over the last 48 hours,
00:09we've kind of banked on we're hinging on him probably coming back,
00:12or we have to run this thing back.
00:14And of the Cavs fans that we talk to every day,
00:17it seems that 98% of them say, you cannot run this back.
00:21You have to do something.
00:22And I think that if Miami didn't get LeBron back,
00:26it's like, all right, we had LeBron.
00:27We don't have LeBron now.
00:29No big deal.
00:29We got Giannis.
00:30That's fine.
00:31I think all these other contenders, Minnesota was a contender before LeBron.
00:34The Cavs are a contender before LeBron, but it's not the same.
00:37And I think a lot of people have hinged it to it.
00:39If he takes an inordinate amount of time, Anthony,
00:44I really believe, and he doesn't pick Cleveland,
00:46I do think that there's going to be some really ill-willed feelings there.
00:50I think it'd be devastating.
00:50I mean, honestly, I think it'd be devastating.
00:52Just judging by how people have talked about this team since they've been eliminated,
00:56if LeBron James does not come to Cleveland,
00:58and their offseason is you're just losing players,
01:01like, granted, Keon Ellis and whoever else.
01:05Dean Wade, I think people are going to be absolutely devastated,
01:09and I don't know how they get people juiced up for tickets next year.
01:12The longer it takes for him to make the decision,
01:15is there the more pressure on him to pick Cleveland?
01:18So this is setting up where it has to be Cleveland or retirement.
01:24If he's going to take this long, because, like, you heard Golden State's in the mix.
01:27Who are some of the other teams in the mix?
01:28Golden State, Philadelphia, and Minnesota.
01:30That's what I'm hearing, right?
01:31Those teams never had him.
01:33So if you've never had him, it's a big deal.
01:36And you can just go back to continuing to hate him if you've already hated him.
01:39Hey, just go right on back to how you felt about him before.
01:43Miami, I don't think he's that, like, Dwayne Wade, I think, is that guy.
01:46I think he's really well-liked in Miami.
01:49I don't think he's beloved in Miami.
01:51And maybe I'm wrong.
01:52I don't know.
01:53I know a lot of people in Miami, they don't seem to say a lot of things about him.
01:58Here, 9 out of 10 Cavs fans are telling you that this thing has to be changed around before this
02:04season.
02:05He is the way that they would change things around.
02:07We try to talk the Giannis thing.
02:09Giannis was a non-starter here.
02:12The Jalen Brown conversation really was a non-starter just because they didn't want to get rid of Evan Mobley,
02:18and they won't do that.
02:19So now here's your chance.
02:21And if he takes an inordinate amount of time and decides to not choose Cleveland,
02:27you use the term devastated.
02:29Yeah, well, devastated because it already feels to a lot of Cavs fans that they've got no shot
02:37to win a championship as constituted.
02:39We saw what happened against the Knicks in the Easter Conference Finals.
02:42It was a team that had run out of gas, way too reliant on James Harden at 36 years old,
02:50who played the most minutes on a team.
02:52Like, that shows you where we thought the roster was going into and then what was reality.
02:57And then, because of the cap situation, you get squeezed out of two role players.
03:03One of those role players was a starter in Dean Wade.
03:06It's not like you have a bunch of cap space.
03:08We're still waiting on the James Harden situation anyway and the restructure.
03:11But overall, how does the team present, you know, a real plan about how they're going forward?
03:19Well, it made sense.
03:21Like, hey, massive upgrade, LeBron James.
03:22And then if you get LeBron, who else do you get?
03:25And if you don't get LeBron, it's like, what are we doing going into next year?
03:29We're just going to rely on James Harden and Donovan Mitchell again
03:32and pray that Evan Mobley makes another leap or jump or whatever you want to call it.
03:37Do you think that, so it's not just the devastating thing, which I think you have a point there.
03:43Do you think that people will lose patience with LeBron over the next couple of weeks?
03:47Because some people said, like, oh my gosh, this thing might not be done until August.
03:50It's like, well, you've got to get going here, man.
03:52We've been annoyed by LeBron before.
03:54Look, we were devastated when he left the first time.
03:56He made up for it by coming back and then helping assemble a championship team
04:01and then a team that won the title.
04:03And, oh, by the way, you got to the NBA Finals four straight years.
04:05You know, you'll probably never do that in any of the teams in town.
04:11You'll never get to four straight, you know, whether it's the Super Bowl,
04:15whether it's the World Series.
04:16That'll just never happen again.
04:18So it was unparalleled success and achievement and a championship breakthrough.
04:22So to me, that completely negated him leaving the first time around.
04:26And then he left again, and it was like, yeah, but he won the title.
04:29Whatever.
04:29Some people were really mad.
04:30I was not.
04:32So would I be – to set that up, the whole thing I was saying was we've been
04:36annoyed by LeBron before.
04:37We'll be annoyed by him again.
04:39But in the end, this is just a, what, a year, two years max,
04:43and then we'll put up a statue.
04:44Well, let me – I'm turning this into a deposition.
04:46I'm sorry.
04:47But do you think that Rick Buecher then had a point about the interest that's in
04:50LeBron because if he continues to stretch this out, like, there might be a law
04:55of diminishing returns here.
04:56Because Rick Buecher said, like, hey, he's 41.
04:59Yeah.
04:59The interest in LeBron is not where it used to be as far as where NBA teams are
05:03concerned.
05:03I think that he has a point when it comes to GMs.
05:06I don't think he has a valid point when it comes to owners.
05:07I think any owner would pick him up because they know that that's a cash cow
05:10waiting to happen.
05:12But over the next – like, if he takes until August, if he were to take until, like,
05:16August 1, that's a long time from now.
05:19I mean, it's only January – it's only July 7th here.
05:21That's forever.
05:23That hinders your ability to build the team.
05:26Exactly.
05:26Like, I know there have been a record amount of free agents that have not been
05:30signed because of this cap situation.
05:31It's why you're seeing guys like Kyle Kuzma and others around the league go,
05:35why did we do this again?
05:36Wait, we got incredible money from the national TV deal.
05:41I know local money took a hit.
05:42But we got this huge TV deal.
05:43And for what?
05:44For a bunch of free agents not to be able to get signed?
05:46Like, what did we do here?
05:48What was our CBA?
05:49This is terrible.
05:50So, we're kind of at a standstill on a lot of this.
05:54And if you are waiting for LeBron and you're the Cavs – other teams don't have to wait.
05:59The Cavs kind of have to.
06:00We kind of are, in a way, held hostage by this because it was one of our only mechanisms
06:06to improve the team materially.
06:09But what are we supposed – like, I can't put a deadline on it.
06:12No.
06:12No, I mean, you just got to wait.
06:13If I call him and say, all right, your deadline is July 16th.
06:17Okay, great.
06:17Yeah, he'll just go somewhere else.
06:18He'll just go – either that or he just will push you to the limit and he'll make his decision
06:22on July 17th.
06:24And what are you going to do?
06:25Are you going to say no?
06:25Like, this is where it's becoming a little bit difficult, I think, for a Cavs fan here.
06:30Because if you have them, you're going to feel a lot better about your season.
06:33Now, I think there's going to be a lot of teams that are still ahead of you.
06:36West Coast and East Coast, if I'm adding it up.
06:37Not that many, but there's going to be teams that are ahead of you in terms of their championship odds.
06:42But if you don't have them, you know you don't have a chance.
06:45And I think that that powerless feeling kind of reminds an old Cavs fan of the way they felt
06:50from the time he got drafted to the time he left the first time.
06:54Because that was a powerless feeling going, what are we going to do to be able to keep this guy?
06:58Now it's not about keeping him.
06:59He can't be around very much longer.
07:01But what are we going to do to bring him in?
07:03What can we do to bring him in?
07:05I mean, the story that came out, and I forget which one it was because there's a thousand different writers
07:10that are coming out with a thousand different insider information.
07:13Not that none of them are true.
07:14There's just a lot to take in.
07:16And the one was he's waiting on one of these teams to make a move.
07:20What move am I supposed to make right now?
07:23What move with my four guys right there, with Mitchell, Harden, Mobley, and Allen,
07:27what move can I make that is necessitating LeBron saying yes?
07:33Like, I almost have to call Rich Paul, which he's the agent and his company is the one that has
07:39the agency
07:40for a lot of players, so maybe that's not a far call to make or a far drive to take.
07:46Maybe I've got to call Rich Paul and go, if I make this move, will this solidify the deal with
07:50LeBron?
07:51I mean, it just sounds nuts.
07:52It sounds nuts for a 41-year-old man.
07:54But also, I have no other choice, guys.
07:57I have no other choice.
07:59I have no other choice but to sit here and deal with it, Anthony.
08:02Yeah, but I guess maybe you could take comfort in the fact that a lot of other teams can't really
08:07make moves either.
08:08I mean, there's so many moves given the cap that there's not a lot of flexibility.
08:13In turn, I mean, maybe there are some moves on the surface you could do afterwards,
08:17but it would involve, you know, bringing in other teams.
08:21You have to get some cooperation.
08:23The reality is that, like, LeBron is going to make his decision.
08:28And listen, we were pretty, I'd say, by the end of the weekend, we were pretty optimistic about all this.
08:37And then you saw another little wrinkle.
08:39Did you see who was the guest coach of the Summer League team?
08:42Romeo Travis.
08:43Romeo Travis.
08:44Did you see who LeBron was hanging out with in Akron?
08:47Was it Romeo Travis?
08:48No, Brandon Weems.
08:49Oh, okay.
08:50Like, who could be the next GM of the Cavs?
08:52Like, if he just ends up picking the Cavs, we're all going to go, oh, this was out there in
08:55plain sight.
08:56I mean, he was getting nostalgic.
08:58He went and hung out with his former Cavs teammates for 10 years, talked about how great Cleveland was.
09:02Then he came back.
09:03Then he hung out with his high school teammates at Akron, St. Vincent, St. Mary.
09:07And then, oh, by the way, the Cavs gave a job to Romeo Travis for the Summer League team.
09:11Like, there is a lot of stuff that is coming together at the same time to make it seem like
09:17this was right here in plain sight.
09:18But you can't guarantee everything.
09:20No, no guarantee.
09:21Because I do think that there's two things that are working with you, and it can work one way or
09:26the other.
09:27I can't look at nostalgia and say that's the only reason for it.
09:30I think he spent the last eight years as a business partner.
09:33I think to some level he feels a little bit disrespected because of the championship that they won that nobody
09:39really counts.
09:39So I think he feels disrespected.
09:41I think that I was amazed at the amount of people when I put him in that Laker category about
09:48where he stands with the Lakers last week.
09:50And people are going, Kenny, you're forgetting Elgin Baylor.
09:52And I'm like, guys, I thought Elgin Baylor was a great player, but I never got to see him.
09:56And I know he was a long, long time ago.
09:58LeBron is arguably the greatest of all time.
10:00And it's like, no, you're forgetting Elgin Baylor.
10:02And then if you're mentioning head coaches, like you're forgetting Pat Riley, you're forgetting Phil.
10:07Like, oh, good God, are some of you going to put Del Harris ahead of him?
10:10I think that that's been a disrespect for him for the last eight years.
10:13But I know I can't put nostalgia on it because that type of feeling he may have might just have
10:18a feeling going,
10:19there's going to be better teams that have a better chance to win a championship.
10:22Jalen Brown going to Philadelphia changes their odds.
10:26Minnesota, obviously, is that conversation.
10:27Golden State, even though it might be the over-the-hill gang, it's going to be a really good over
10:31-the-hill gang there.
10:32So there's opportunities there to go.
10:34Now, I don't think Golden State has a better chance than we do, but I use these examples of going,
10:39I can't just sit there and tug at his heartstrings and think that's the only reason here.
10:43But damn it, I look at that lineup that would be around him as of right now,
10:46which I know you probably have to move on from one of these guys to make this work.
10:49But even if we're Jared Allen, Mitchell, Harden, Mobley, and LeBron James is a damn good lineup there.
10:54It is, and they would absolutely be formidable.
10:58They would absolutely have a say, as long as they're healthy.
11:01They'd have a say on who comes out of the East.
11:04They would.
11:05Ask any honest Knicks fan if they were better off, if they felt better off seeing either Dean Wade or
11:13Max Troos last year compared to LeBron.
11:16Like, they would tell you, yeah, we'd have rather seen Dean Wade, Max Troos.
11:19First, I'll tell you this, there was a feeling that I had when LeBron left in 2018.
11:26I never thought he was coming back, and it took me a long time to even believe he was going
11:30to come back.
11:31But I thought that we would never see a team like this ever again.
11:35A team like that ever again, a chance to win a championship, I thought that that was out the window.
11:40Now, they've proved me wrong.
11:42This is a very good basketball team, and I feel much better about it,
11:45and I feel better about Cavs basketball moving forward.
11:47And I will say, as long as Dan Gilbert's the owner, he's willing to throw money around.
11:52I understand that he's not a perfect owner.
11:55No owner is, for crying out loud.
11:56Remember, owners aren't meant to be light.
11:58But Dan Gilbert has proven time and time again, he's willing to spend almost anything to win a championship,
12:03which is half the battle with a lot of these guys.
12:06You see what's going on over there in Portland right now.
12:07But now, when you have him back on this team, there will be challenges in the future of the hard
12:14cap.
12:14Now you have more on Kobe Altman that he has to do, but at least they proved it to me.
12:19If I can have him back, I still have confidence that if LeBron comes back and say he gives you
12:24two years,
12:25which we'll argue about that later on because there is the conversation about one year or two years with LeBron.
12:30But say he gives us two years.
12:31I do have confidence that, given the ownership, if they have the right people as general manager,
12:38you can't keep Kobe Altman forever, and certainly he's fallible,
12:41that they could still put together a really great basketball team in the future
12:47that could compete for a championship again.
12:49I see this.
12:50This is eight different champions over the last eight years, Anthony.
12:54We keep bringing that up.
12:55I mean, they're more like the NFL than what the NFL is like when they claim to have their parity.
13:00I mean, this is something.
13:01So you can't tell me they can never build a winner without LeBron ever again.
13:06So I feel better about the chances of him coming back.
13:08I feel better about him coming back, and it's not like, well, we either have to have LeBron
13:12or we never have a chance at this thing.
13:13I feel better about him coming back, and then I feel better about the afterwards.
13:17Even though there will be struggles, I feel better about the afterwards and the future after LeBron, Anthony.
13:21Yeah, obviously, look, their future has to not involve LeBron James,
13:25which, you know, this Donovan Mitchell era has been without LeBron James.
13:31And they've been pretty damn good in the regular season.
13:34They've had terrible flameouts in the postseason.
13:36They also got the Eastern Conference Finals.
13:38Yeah.
13:38But it's pretty clear right now they could use LeBron James, which is, you know.
13:44Weird thing to say.
13:45It's a weird thing to say.
13:46They could use him instead of they have to have him, and we'll pull out all the stops no matter
13:49what.
13:50Yeah.
13:51This is, it's a swan song situation anyway, but it's a guy who's still playing at a very high level.
13:57I brought up the Kobe Bryant last year.
13:59They only won like 17 games that last year, and nobody cared.
14:02This, you could win and still have that documentary-type season that we're going to remember forever.
14:10That's what I think is very, very cool about this situation.
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