RELATED: LeBron James hints at leaving Cleveland
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LeBron James has had to apologize to Cavaliers GM David Griffin and coach Tyronn Lue for his behavior recently. During the Cavs 122-101 loss to the Miami Heat on Saturday night, James met with longtime friend and former teammate Dwyane Wade during halftime rather than warm up with the team. Coach Lue was understandably annoyed about that and had a talk with James about it.
"I just told him we can't have that, being down like we were and him being the leader," Lue told Cleveland.com. "Just me being a competitor, I didn't like it. We had a long talk about it. It was good. He understood, he apologized, and he's been great."
Then James had an interview with Bleacher Report where he said he would love to play with guys like Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul before he retires. He also said he would take a pay cut to do it like he did in Miami —- even if it was a fairly minimal one.
Wade, James and Anthony were all a part of that tremendous 2003 draft class and all four of them (with Paul) have been longtime friends and have competed in the Olympics together.
Wade will be a free agent after this season. James can enter free agency via a player option. Anthony signed a five-year deal with the Knicks in 2014, and Paul's contract with the Clippers expires in 2017. However, Anthony could conceivably demand a trade from the Knicks to set himself up for the ultimate team up down the road if he so chose.
It certainly sounds like James is already thinking about his offseason and how he might be able to get out of Cleveland. That would be an especially enticing option if the team doesn't win a championship this year. The Kevin Love experiment has gone horribly awry and James and Irving haven't quite meshed as well this season as people hoped. This will certainly be an offseason storyline to follow to see if James decides to opt back in with the team.
