00:00If LeBron comes back, it's not like would you take LeBron back
00:03if it meant Draymond or anything like that.
00:05If LeBron comes back, would it make it easier for you to accept Draymond?
00:09Would you bury the hatchet with Draymond?
00:11Boy, is he the one guy in the entire NBA who's signing off
00:16on one of the most polarizing players in the NBA would be acceptable
00:21to a fan that has hated his guts, a fan base that has been united in hate?
00:26I mean, a lot of people hate Draymond, but we had a particular hatred.
00:29The night they traded in 2014, when they made the trade
00:34for Amon Shumpert and J.R. Smith, remember the J.R. Smith trade
00:38was announced before it was announced that they got Amon Shumpert.
00:44And there was a lot of FAN I was paying attention to then.
00:48And J.R. Smith, for a while in New York, was reviled by Knicks fans.
00:56And this was a guy who had been, I think, sixth man of the year
00:59if I'm not mistaken, he was reviled.
01:01The driving incidents, some things like that, they were talking about him being immature.
01:04It was just very ugly.
01:05And the night they got J.R. Smith, I remember I thought they were only getting J.R. Smith.
01:09And I was freaking out, going, this is a terrible trade.
01:11This is bad.
01:12This is awful for this organization.
01:14You're bringing in a poison to this team.
01:16And then they got Amon Shumpert.
01:17I went, oh, they wanted Amon Shumpert.
01:20J.R. was a throw-in.
01:21And then it took me a couple of months to come around on J.R. Smith.
01:28Ended up loving J.R. Smith.
01:30And now I would never, other than what I said over a dozen years ago,
01:35I would never say anything bad about J.R. Smith.
01:37I'm a big fan of J.R. Smith.
01:38I think we all are.
01:39Like, I don't think he's a guy who buys a drink in this town.
01:41I think he's a guy who gulps for free in this town.
01:43Everybody really likes J.R. Smith here.
01:45He has become a fan favorite of the 2016 Cavs,
01:48of the guys that you're not retiring their jerseys and all the other stuff.
01:51J.R. Smith is one of the fan favorites out there.
01:53If LeBron was able to keep J.R. Smith in line,
01:56who seemed to be a lost cause to the New York Knicks,
02:00this is a guy who's won four championships with another team.
02:03This is a guy who is going into the Hall of Fame.
02:05This is a guy who will have his jersey retired with another organization.
02:10He can't do the same with Draymond for a season?
02:13Really, Draymond Green is just too far to bring back LeBron James there?
02:17We really can't possibly bury a hatchet with Draymond?
02:20Or how about this?
02:22It's not a business decision with LeBron here.
02:24This isn't a business managing partnership.
02:27This is love.
02:29This is nostalgia,
02:30but this is still something that they want to go win a championship.
02:33As long as LeBron's here,
02:36you can't deal with Draymond for a season?
02:40And then there's the other part to it.
02:42Tone, you know this.
02:43How many calls have we got about the Cavs being soft over the last four years?
02:47Some of them we've disagreed with.
02:48Some have been absolutely unfair.
02:50Even this year where I didn't think our issue was softness.
02:53I mean, we went toe-to-toe with two of the best defenses,
02:55rugged defenses in the entire league.
02:57I didn't think we were soft,
02:58and we were lined up with calls calling us soft.
02:59Now, we had other problems that certainly allowed those series
03:04to fester on longer than they should have,
03:06but I don't think it was because we weren't tough.
03:10I just didn't see that.
03:11We might have run into a wall.
03:13We might have had issues getting back on defense.
03:15That's not the same as toughness.
03:17I understand that.
03:17That's right.
03:18But if you want to talk tough,
03:20if people just think it's a toughness issue,
03:21and a lot of people do,
03:22that's a label that they have.
03:25Who's edgier?
03:26Who's tougher?
03:27Who's meaner?
03:29than Draymond Green over the last how many years?
03:32He is a wild card.
03:33At times, yes, he can be a problem for his own team.
03:37I'm not going to sit here and act like the Jordan Poole incident didn't happen.
03:40Draymond can be a bit much.
03:43Draymond will go down with a fight.
03:45He will not sit there and just take it.
03:47If they go out and they play in the Eastern Conference Finals again next year
03:50and they lose to the New York Knicks,
03:52Draymond is going to get a piece of flesh somehow.
03:55You know that's going to happen.
03:56He's leaving here with something.
03:59And that, I think a lot of Cavs fans,
04:01if he plays on your team, you can respect that.
04:04Because you watch that team,
04:05and whether it's fair or not,
04:07there's plenty of people going,
04:08why don't they just fight?
04:08Why don't they just fight?
04:09Because again, calling a team soft is one of the worst things you can say about an organization.
04:13Because no team in any part of the world wants to be called soft.
04:17No fan base wants to have a soft team.
04:19He ain't soft.
04:20So you can actually cheer for him.
04:22I get it.
04:22He's a villain.
04:23He's one of the most reviled sports figures in this city's history.
04:26Is it weird that I kind of think that could be fun, though?
04:29That could be fun.
04:30I don't know how it is.
04:31And by the way,
04:31it is weird,
04:32but I don't know why your point is even weirder.
04:33I know different circumstances entirely,
04:35but you guys do remember,
04:38we probably treated LeBron as bad as any athlete has ever been treated ever in the city of Cleveland when
04:44he came back.
04:46That first game back,
04:48when he was a Miami Heat player,
04:50he was treated like a bigger villain than Draymond Green was ever treated here in Cleveland.
04:55So I understand different circumstances,
04:58but we came around very quickly just three years later.
05:01I was doing a game in Hillsdale, Michigan at Hillsdale College,
05:04coming in hot at 945.
05:06I know it well, Kenny.
05:07I know it well.
05:07Coming in hot at 945 this morning,
05:10not 829.
05:12Go ahead.
05:14Nothing?
05:15No.
05:16You're leaning into the mic.
05:17You want to say something?
05:18You're calling the games at Liberty?
05:20I was with the Ashland Eagles on the road calling a basketball game at Hillsdale College.
05:29And it was the night LeBron came back.
05:32And I remember, like, the cameras following the bus and all the other stuff.
05:36And when he came out, it was a sea of booze, nasty, everybody couldn't believe.
05:41By the end of that game, I'm getting texts from buddies who are at that game going,
05:46we're madder at our own team than we are at LeBron.
05:48Because all the guys were buddy-buddy, basically like,
05:50hey, can you get us out of here with you when you leave?
05:52Like, that type of thing.
05:53I mean, you want to talk about soft.
05:54That's all-time sad and soft.
05:56And then over time, you're like, hey, we have a history there.
05:59We've been nasty before.
06:01They've been nasty before.
06:02And we've been nasty towards Draymond Green.
06:05Why can't we bury the hatchet to bring back some edginess to us?
06:09So here's one caveat on all this.
06:11And even me, the wine and gold homer that I've been accused of by people on this station.
06:17And rightfully so.
06:18Whammer.
06:18You've called me Whammer at times.
06:20You actually almost came over the table with me on that one.
06:22That was a fun day.
06:24And look, we've made up.
06:26We're frenzy.
06:27So clearly, you can too.
06:28So I can't deny that there is a non-zero percent chance that a guy like Draymond
06:38could mar the final season of LeBron in Cleveland.
06:42Like, we can't act like there isn't the potential for everything to go awry.
06:47I don't think there's a chance in hell he could mar the final season of LeBron in Cleveland.
06:52They would send him to Siberia before they would allow that to happen.
06:56And he wouldn't do it.
06:57It's bad for his own business.
06:59Yeah, I don't think he would.
06:59I want to be clear.
07:00He may slug another guy in the face on the floor.
07:04He may pull a Kermit Washington out there.
07:06He may kick somebody.
07:07A Cavs player?
07:08No, no, no.
07:09I'm talking about another player.
07:10See, this is where it's at.
07:11They're business partners.
07:12Yes.
07:13And so what if, we don't know this, but are they not involved in a media venture as well?
07:18Yeah.
07:18Oh, yeah.
07:18All right.
07:19We're all talking about the documentary that they're going to make about LeBron.
07:22Because that's half the reason I think Sham Sharanya is saying some of this stuff.
07:26Because I think they, it's my thought, they want some of this stuff documented so they
07:30can use it in the documentary later on.
07:32And be like, it was such a wild time.
07:34He's 41.
07:35Everybody's still lining up.
07:36We got voice memos from GMs and owners wanting him back.
07:40And he's still at the zenith.
07:42They weren't doing that for Jordan.
07:43Voice memos didn't really count at that time.
07:45But they weren't doing that for Jordan.
07:46They were doing it for LeBron.
07:47I think they want all that out there.
07:49Did Gansey put one of those out there?
07:51Man, Gansey might have done him a solid.
07:53Who knows what's going to happen.
07:55It's all incestuous now.
07:57It's, I do think that there's part of the gamesmanship that goes on.
08:00I mean, some of this is a show.
08:02And the more time that we get to say things, the more clips that they get to go, man, this
08:06guy was here in Cleveland saying that.
08:08This guy was there saying this.
08:09They can all do it.
08:10Let me get back to it.
08:12They're business partners.
08:13They do seem to be having a friendly relationship with each other.
08:16It would only hurt Draymond's business.
08:19Okay?
08:19To act like that towards Cleveland.
08:21And if he goes out there and you guys are all mad because there's a hard foul on Donovan
08:26or a hard foul on Evan or a hard foul on...
08:28You know who's stepping up.
08:29You know who's going to go out there and who's going to cut somebody.
08:32And it's going to be Draymond Green.
08:34Have we known that the last five years?
08:36We have.
08:36I mean, that was the whole thing.
08:37Did we or did we not watch him the entire time in those finals games?
08:41Because we knew he was going to do something crazy.
08:43And then he did something crazy.
08:44And he was out for a game that changed the entire complexion of the finals.
08:49Now, that is the flip side, though.
08:50He does lose his mind at times.
08:52He does lose his mind.
08:53But is he going to be such an integral part like what he was in the 2016 NBA Finals?
08:58No, he won't.
08:59He's going to be a decent piece.
09:01I didn't realize he's played in as many games as he's played in over the last couple of years.
09:04Because he seems to be really, really tired and really beat up.
09:08But he's not going to be one of the three main cogs on this team if he were to come
09:12here.
09:13Guys, I'm trying to find the negative.
09:15I'm not trying to make anybody upset.
09:16I'm not trying to just get through the segment.
09:19But you guys want dangerous.
09:20You guys want mean.
09:22He's all those things.
09:23He's all those things.
09:24And he gets along with LeBron.
09:26And LeBron has made guys who are seen as cast-offs and malcontents.
09:30And he's made those guys fall in line.
09:32And anybody who wasn't a cast-off and a malcontent, he's led them to better careers, more money.
09:38He's done things for all these guys.
09:39He couldn't do that for Draymond Green.
09:41Draymond Green wouldn't fall in line to make sure that the business is done.
09:44He would.
09:45At least I'd hope he would.
09:47And I think he would.
09:50I fail to see the horrific downside of this.
09:53And I think those who think it can be a horrific downside, I think we're living in the past too
09:57much.
09:58We've got to get out of 2014 to 2018 Cavs and go to where we're at now.
10:03The man's 41 years old.
10:05He's at the end of his career.
10:06It's probably a one-and-done season.
10:08He'll probably retire here this season.
10:10And that'll be the end of it.
10:11And off we go.
10:12I don't think there's any way Draymond Green is going to end all that.
10:15No way.
10:17The legacy, the shadow of LeBron is too big.
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