00:00I wanted to play the Kenny Atkinson from, this is from the NBA Summer League,
00:05where finally somebody from the Cavs have broken their silence about going after LeBron James.
00:13Lima and I were having a big argument last week about this, because you were like,
00:16ah, who cares, I don't even need to. I'm like, no, they need to make some sort of a pitch.
00:20Well, Kenny Atkinson on SiriusXM NBA Radio said that they are in the mix for,
00:25well, he didn't, did he name LeBron by name, or did he just kind of dance around it?
00:29Here's Kenny.
00:30Listen, this is an exciting time for us. We're in the mix for the greatest player of all time,
00:36you know, my personal opinion. So it's exciting, right? Like, man, we're, I think you're nervous,
00:42but, you know, we understand how it is. He's obviously has earned that right to take his time.
00:47Obviously, family plays a big part of it, but I know the state of Ohio, man, that there's,
00:52there's like, there's something special there.
00:55Obviously, All Cavs Conversations brought to you by the fine folks at Surfside Hard Ice 2.
00:59You ask you to please enjoy that Surfside Hard Ice 2 responsibly.
01:027.04 and 49 seconds for those scoring at home.
01:05You hear Kenny Atkinson. I'm glad somebody has finally been a little bit public,
01:09because it seemed that there was every single person who had ever been associated
01:13with any of the other teams who has spoken out over the last couple of weeks about,
01:16you know, LeBron makes sense here. LeBron makes sense there.
01:19You have Gary Payton talking about why he needs to go to the Warriors,
01:22because Gary Payton Jr. plays for the Warriors.
01:23I think there was the conversation we've heard about the Timberwolves,
01:27and some former Timberwolves saying that LeBron needs to go to Minnesota.
01:31I'm glad somebody has come out and said some things of any consequence,
01:35because what I didn't like was the argument we had last week,
01:38where you were just willing to basically sit around and wait for LeBron to make his decision,
01:42which I just thought was, I think it would be foolish.
01:46I, if, if a man who has...
01:49Well, wait, that's not exactly my, my take was that the pitch,
01:52that there, there needed to be no more new pitch to LeBron.
01:56That, that, that was, that was done.
01:58We were talking about making a public plea, and I'm like,
02:00I, I think if anybody's making a public plea at that point,
02:04like, they probably know he's probably not coming out.
02:06Well, I don't need, well, wait a minute.
02:07I need the Cavs to make some sort of a plea.
02:09I didn't need fans or anything else to make a plea,
02:11because I think we go down a weird road,
02:12because we have made public pleas before, very public pleas in the past.
02:17I, I do think, though, that it needs to be said that the Cavaliers are definitely in on it.
02:21I know that it can be a, a sensitive thing,
02:24because you don't want to rub him the wrong way.
02:25It's his decision.
02:27And I think that he holds the cards to our happiness.
02:30At least our excitement about the 2026 Cavaliers, does he not?
02:33If he decides to go somewhere else,
02:35what are you excited about for the 2026, 2027 Cavs?
02:37I honestly think it would be pretty,
02:39and I know this is crazy to think of at his age and experience,
02:41and at this stage in 2026,
02:44but I think it'd be devastating if he didn't pick the Cavs.
02:46I think so.
02:47I think it would, it would be,
02:49and the level of confidence that I feel like people are putting out,
02:57I think it would be pretty devastating and downright shocking to them.
03:01I think there'd be some pretty vitriolic stuff put out there
03:04if he didn't pick Cleveland.
03:05Like, I don't think we'd be setting jerseys on fire again or anything like that,
03:09but for two weeks, and according to Rich Paul, it could go another week.
03:14You keep asking, we'll throw another week on there.
03:18According to Rich Paul, this could continue to go throughout this week.
03:23So if it continues to go throughout this week,
03:25I do think there's a bit of a fear to rub him the wrong way.
03:29You don't want to end up saying the wrong thing there.
03:31But I also think for a lot of Cavs fans, the longer we go,
03:34the more you get your hopes up that he's going to come back
03:36if he decides to not come back here.
03:41It puts you in a weird spot because, again, I think in 10 years,
03:45there's going to be very little memory of any anger
03:48that could possibly be shared this week if he doesn't decide to come here.
03:52So it's a weird thing to bring up because I think in 10 years, this goes away.
03:56But for the time being, I think you're going to have a lot of really upset Cleveland fans
04:00because it's either you get excited about LeBron
04:02or even though you have this good basketball team, they're good.
04:05They are good.
04:06But if I have to keep telling everybody how good they are,
04:09that means nobody's really excited for them.
04:11And when you're telling me that they're holding off,
04:13which I think we have to actually discuss whether or not it's fair or not,
04:16about the pulling away from tickets
04:20or not letting people buy season tickets right now per se
04:23because they don't know whether or not LeBron's coming back,
04:26there's a lot of hopes that are getting pulled up there.
04:29And if you allow Cavs fans to get their hopes up again
04:32and he doesn't make this decision, there's going to be some very angry people.
04:36And you know what? Rightfully so.
04:37Rightfully so.
04:38Because you're playing with people's emotions at this point.
04:40Do I think that anger would mar the entire LeBron experience?
04:45It's like, no, we won a championship with the dude.
04:46He gave us our best sporting memories of our life by far.
04:49That's true.
04:50Not even close.
04:50Unless you're like an Ohio State fan.
04:52And there's no way, there's no way that his decision in this year,
04:57like if your team, you know, you almost have to like take a step back
05:01and go, really that's on my team if I'm relying on LeBron James
05:05to help put us over the hump at this stage.
05:07I understand that.
05:08And the rebuild.
05:09I totally understand that.
05:10But it's not just, we got to continue.
05:13If we're using nostalgia as a reason to bring back LeBron,
05:17then I have to use nostalgia as a reason why people are getting their hopes up
05:19about him coming back because you have fond memories of the guy.
05:22And it's not just about saving this version of the Cavs.
05:25They went to the Eastern Conference Finals.
05:26Not everybody can win a championship.
05:28There's plenty of teams that got close in the past
05:29and ended up being forgotten to the annals of history.
05:32But for him, there is a lot of people that probably shut him off
05:37once he left Cleveland the second time.
05:39And they thought, you know what?
05:42That's it.
05:42We're never getting him back.
05:44Let's not discuss it.
05:45Because I was one of the people.
05:47And now you start to remember some of the things that you enjoyed
05:50when he was here.
05:52And I think it would be a cool story for him to finish his career
05:56here in Cleveland and all those other things.
05:58Now people are getting their hopes up.
05:59People who did not think that there were people who said they didn't care
06:03or people who didn't think that there was going to be a chance.
06:05Now they're starting to get their hopes up that the guy will come back.
06:07If he decides to not come back here, you could say it's an open decision.
06:12But also I think by now it's going to feel like he's going to spurn us
06:14or not that he's going to, but he would be spurning us
06:17if he weren't coming back.
06:18That's why I felt better about Kenny Atkinson.
06:20At least somebody is coming out and admitting it that, yeah,
06:23they're making a real big play to go after this guy.
06:25Somebody with not just an insider, not just a person on the outside,
06:29not just a person with a microphone in front of him,
06:31but a real member of the organization.
06:34Some people seem to be really annoyed that it was Kenny,
06:38that either he would be.
06:40Just because of the stuff he said recently.
06:41Well, of course.
06:42I know.
06:43Of course.
06:43I know.
06:44Yeah.
06:45I mean, the fact that I still, over the weekend,
06:48I still hear the analytic jokes, you know, aimed at him.
06:51Even though there's been other stuff that's happened in the league
06:54and there's been other, man, in the NBA finals,
06:56we had a team blow a massive, massive lead.
06:59I know.
07:00And yet it still comes back to Kenny Atkinson
07:02and the jokes surrounding what he said.
07:04So in kind of picking up, you know, the chatter around this decision
07:10and, you know, the summer league stuff that came out,
07:13I did see some people say, man, he didn't exactly exude a lot of confidence there.
07:18And they were worried about what that meant.
07:20They didn't think Kenny was very confident.
07:22They thought it was, again, a guy making a plea like, well, you know,
07:28we're hoping to get this free agent, you know, and trying to play.
07:31I think it's Kenny trying to be coy.
07:32Trying to be, trying to have fun with it.
07:34He doesn't, he just doesn't sound like, he has not been the best messenger
07:38for Cavs basketball.
07:39But we got a couple of clips of Atkinson.
07:41I didn't hear that in that first.
07:42What is it in the second?
07:43I'm sending no one on a chase here.
07:45We have a shorter clip of him that was during the middle of a game.
07:48Okay.
07:48Here's, here's Kenny Atkinson.
07:51This is on prime.
07:52All right.
07:53Is this 0-2?
07:54This is Atkinson 0-1.
07:56This is what I have as a one.
07:57All right.
07:58Go ahead.
07:58Hit it again.
07:59You guys know there's a little free agency thing going on right now.
08:02That could be our real job.
08:03And you know what I'm talking about.
08:05So, you know, that, that's exciting too.
08:08What was wrong with that?
08:09I didn't, I didn't see it prime.
08:11I've just seen the reaction.
08:13Basically anything Kenny says right now is being critiqued.
08:17Well, Kobe Alvin's not going to say anything right now.
08:20I know Bob Myers actually said something.
08:22So I guess Kobe Alvin could come out and say something if he really wanted to.
08:25I wonder if it would like take Donovan Mitchell,
08:28who of course he was at the same concert LeBron was at, the Jay-Z one,
08:31and not the one that was delayed four hours apparently.
08:33Well, there were three of them over the weekend.
08:35I know.
08:35Yes.
08:37Boy, what a nightmare.
08:38We were, we were upset about the show being delayed an hour.
08:41Imagine four hours.
08:42Are you, so are people really upset that Kenny Atkinson said something just
08:45because it was him?
08:46I think they don't like Kenny Atkinson.
08:48Come on.
08:48Come on.
08:49We're being ridiculous here.
08:50And plus, I mean, the other part of this, and we talked about it last week,
08:54whether we were wondering whether we have the right coach for LeBron James.
08:57Like, you know, for a fact, people are going to wonder if, you know,
09:02he's going to be on the clock.
09:04And considering the year we won the championship, we switched coaches mid-season,
09:09you do wonder if there is any confidence whatsoever that we've got the right guy.
09:15Well, I was going to ask something else, but fine.
09:17Was Kenny Atkinson the wrong messenger over the weekend during summer league
09:23about LeBron coming back?
09:25I think that that's crazy, but I understand he said some things that have rubbed people
09:30the wrong way here over the last recent months, obviously, so maybe he's the wrong guy.
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