00:00I kind of, over the last couple weeks, and we talked about it last week,
00:03I thought the longer it went on, the more likely it was he wasn't going to come to Cleveland,
00:07because Cleveland was the obvious answer, like, from the beginning.
00:11Cleveland was the obvious place.
00:12See, I disagree with that.
00:13You're in the Eastern Conference Finals, there's the storyline,
00:16there's the feel-good end of your career, there's all that stuff.
00:20So I felt like the longer it went, the more likely it was he was going to choose somewhere else.
00:23And so when the news came down, and it's funny because I mentioned my wife,
00:27she was devastated, she was like, I was getting ready to try to go to some games this year
00:31and really be all up in the Cavs, and she was so excited about the possibilities of him coming back
00:37and what it would mean and the stories, and then I was just kind of like, wow, that's crazy.
00:41And she was like, that's your reaction? That's all you really felt about this?
00:45And I was like, I prepared myself that this could happen, though.
00:47I see it a little different. I don't see it as Cleveland was the obvious choice.
00:52I honestly thought Cleveland sat back and did the same thing that they did when he left here in 2010.
00:59You know, Cleveland tried to sell him on sentimental value.
01:02They tried to sell him on this being home.
01:04Everybody loves you here. We've already won a championship.
01:07What a cool story it would be for you to come back to win your champion, to finish your career
01:12here.
01:13And that was not the type of time that LeBron James was on.
01:16If you go back to what happened in the playoffs last year, he became rejuvenated, and this became about winning
01:22again.
01:23And what the Cleveland Cavaliers did was their pitch was, this is home.
01:27Okay, yeah, cool, but LeBron is a businessman.
01:30And you should have known from what happened before that you just can't sell him on sentimental value,
01:37especially if at this stage of his career, especially when Rich Paul told us weeks ago,
01:42this is a business decision, you should have been more prepared to that.
01:46And in my opinion, I felt like it's okay if you want to sit back and put all your eggs
01:53in a LeBron basket,
01:54but to a degree, if you really was in pursuit of LeBron James,
01:59then you should have probably did more to make this roster more impressive, more intriguing,
02:05whatever the case may be.
02:07And all the Philadelphia 76ers did was make move after move after move
02:12and put themselves in position to land LeBron James to help chase the championship.
02:16See, but you're saying that they only sold him on the storyline part of it.
02:21And that's where I disagree.
02:22When you say, well, Cleveland is the obvious answer,
02:25it's only obvious to people in their minds because this is home.
02:28Yeah, but no, but what about the fact that they were in the Eastern Conference Finals?
02:31Like, what more of a selling point do you need if you're trying to sell him on winning
02:35and then, hey, we were here.
02:36Look where we were.
02:37We were four games away from getting back to the finals,
02:40and we think you're the guy that puts us over the top to then get to the finals.
02:44Like, to me, if this was the Cavs when LeBron came back in 14
02:49and they were a losing franchise, fine.
02:52Selling him on, and also that was a different time for LeBron.
02:55He was in his prime then.
02:56I get completely catering the roster to LeBron James at that stage of his career,
03:01but there are certain moves that you make because LeBron's on your team at 41
03:06where he's probably only, where he's in a battle with father time
03:09and he's going to retire at some point.
03:11He signed a two-year contract.
03:13It's a player option that second year.
03:14I'm assuming that player option is because if he just decides at the end of this year,
03:18like, yeah, I don't want to go out sad if I can't really play anymore
03:21or I'm injured or whatever, like, I have the option to retire.
03:24And he said this is his final decision, so, okay.
03:27Like, to me, you don't make all these crazy moves just to get LeBron at 41.
03:34I'm sorry.
03:35I wasn't ever subscribed to that belief.
03:38I'm not mad at the Cavs for not necessarily going all out to get a 41-year-old LeBron James.
03:43It's not about going to get a 41-year-old LeBron to a degree.
03:46It's about improving your team to be better for what it was last year.
03:49You looked at your roster and felt like adding LeBron and adding LeBron alone is enough to get you over
03:54the Cubs.
03:55And if that's something that you feel, okay.
03:57But me and you done had plenty of conversations.
03:59As soon as the season ended, I came on air and said that the Cavaliers should try to trade for
04:02Jalen Brown.
04:03Did I not?
04:03Yeah.
04:04That's a big splash move that would help you in areas to where your team was weak.
04:08The Cavaliers chose not to go that route.
04:10Me and you came to the conclusion, and it became very evident,
04:14that Evan Mobley was never in nobody's plans to be traded,
04:18even if it meant that it could improve the roster in other ways.
04:21And I think for LeBron, when he weighed his options, because I'm going to be honest with you,
04:26as much in my heart as I wanted it to be Cleveland, I thought it was going to be Miami.
04:30So when I say I was a little shocked, I was shocked it was Philly, but I understood.
04:33Because if you look at the roster, you got Tyrese Maxey, who's a dog, a baller.
04:38You got Edgecombe, who is a young player who's clearly shown that his future is bright.
04:44You add a Jalen Brown.
04:45Well, that's what Evan Mobley is to the Cavs.
04:47But we all know what Embiid is when he's healthy.
04:50So when you look at that roster, it's more appealing to be there versus,
04:55well, James Harden is about a year or two younger than me, right?
04:59Like, I don't know if Evan Mobley, like, thinking as LeBron, possibly,
05:03I don't know if Evan Mobley is there yet or right there to take that step right now.
05:07And if my priority is trying to win a championship right now today, I can see why he looked at
05:12Philadelphia like,
05:14okay, this is a little bit more intriguing, and this feels like it can work more than it could anywhere
05:21else.
05:21Listen, I'm not saying, if that's what he decided, that's fine.
05:24If he looked at the rosters and said, I think this team has a better chance to win,
05:27and he's going to bank on Joel Embiid's knees holding up for an entire season and postseason, that's fine.
05:32Like, that's fine that he did that.
05:34I'm just saying, like, I'm not mad at the Cavs for whatever their pitch was to LeBron.
05:40I'm not mad at the Cavs. I'm not mad at LeBron.
05:42Here's the thing, though. I'm mad at the Cavs for a different reason.
05:44I'm not mad at the Cavs for what they tried to sell LeBron on.
05:48I'm mad that they didn't do other things in the meantime to try to improve the roster,
05:52and now they're slim pickings, but we can get into that later.
05:55That's a different part of the conversation.
05:57I think we say it the same way. We're saying it differently because that's where I kind of fall in
06:01line at.
06:02If you land LeBron, you land LeBron.
06:05But to me, it looks like on the surface, you all kind of sat back,
06:09waiting to see if LeBron was going to choose you or not,
06:12and then now that he didn't, here we are.
06:15Right, but I'm saying I don't think that they went about it the wrong way in terms of their pitch
06:19to LeBron.
06:20Like, I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think this was a matter of the Cavs losing
06:24out on LeBron
06:25because they didn't do enough to sell him on it.
06:27I think this was LeBron making a decision independently on how he felt, and that's fine.
06:33If that's what he wants to choose, that's fine.
06:35And you can argue all you want that the Cavs should have gone and gotten Jalen Brown,
06:38should have gone and gotten this guy, whatever,
06:40but clearly within their organization, and we've known this for a while,
06:45what did we hear when Giannis got traded?
06:47It was like the Cavs never even came close to offering Evan Mobley for Giannis.
06:52I think that's evident to us both, though.
06:55Right, but I'm saying they feel in their heart of hearts, and if you feel differently, that's fine,
06:58but they feel in their heart of hearts that he's a piece of this team that they want to build
07:02around for years to come,
07:03and they were never going to trade him.
07:05So their selling point was, LeBron, if you don't think we have enough, fine,
07:11but we were just in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, four games away from going to the Finals.
07:16We think you're the missing piece to that.
07:18I don't think that they just tried to sell LeBron on the sentimental part of it.
07:21I think the fans tried to do that.
07:23I don't think they tried to do that.
07:25I don't know.
07:26I disagree with that.
07:27To me, you can't look at this team and be like, you were in the Eastern Conference Finals.
07:30That's not enough to sell somebody to your championship contender?
07:33You can't say that people didn't try to use the sentimental part because…
07:35I'm not saying they didn't try to use that, but I don't think that was the only part of it.
07:38Everybody came on air and kept talking about, well, this is home.
07:39What a cool story it'll be, right?
07:41But that's on the air.
07:42That's not the Cavs pitched to him.
07:44You've heard from, quote-unquote, credible sources that the Cavaliers' pitch was, this is home.
07:49So I'm not just putting this out of nowhere, but that can be the priority of it.
07:54I understand, but I think they felt like it kind of…
07:56I'm saying when they go into those conversations with LeBron,
07:59they had to feel like the fact that they were in the Eastern Conference Finals last year spoke for itself.
08:03They're like, look how close we were.
08:04We think you're the missing piece.
08:05Plus, there's the added bonus of you get to come home and end your career in the Hollywood style
08:11that everybody wants to see you end it.
08:12The fans going on the air, us going on the air and saying, LeBron, come home.
08:16This is the great story.
08:17That's one thing.
08:18But I don't think the Cavs just sat there.
08:20I'm not here splitting hairs on what their pitch was to LeBron.
08:25I think the fact they were in the Eastern Conference Finals spoke for itself.
08:27The roster they have, the talent they have spoke for itself.
08:30They are still a team that can contend for a championship with the roster that they have.
08:34I think that's just facts.
08:35It just comes down to he looked at the other rosters and said,
08:38I think that this one's a little bit better, so I'm choosing Philly.
08:40And that's fine.
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