Why LeBron James left Cleveland

He could not win there, and it is not his fault. He gave Cleveland a hall of fame worthy 7 years. He put up 30-7-7 on a consistent basis every night. There is nothing more he could do. When D-Wade and Chris Bosh are better than the Cavs best players Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, so is it any wonder why he left. They fired his GM and his coach, if he had to basically start a new way of playing why not play with players he has the best chance of winning with. He owes Cleveland nothing, he has already overpayed his dues.

Well thats one of many ways to look at it.

Youre completely forgetting his 66 and 61 win seasons, these two last playoff runs which weren't too bad, or the fact that all Cleveland is trying to do is make the team so that he has weapons to work with. In Miami he could be the 3rd or possibly even 4th option on several nights, maybe consecutive. He doesn't lead the team, nor is he going to be able to use his full talent with the Heat.

Regular season wins don't mean much. Lebron probably felt like the cavs were going backwards,because like you said,61 and 66 win season..why fire the coach and gm? They just needed to tweak,not blow up. Lebron said he doesnt want to " be 31,with bad knees,and no title. ".

Its the way he left CLE that is making people so angry...

If he just announced it like Wade and Bosh.....he wouldn't have as much backlash...
Were there still gonna be angry people? yeah.

But if he didn't make a 1 hr spectacle out of it.....I'm 100% sure that there would be no "burning of jerseys"

IT would have been mean to cleveland to just dully announce it as if cleveland meant nothing to him ...he did the right thing.

YS wrote:

Its the way he left CLE that is making people so angry...

If he just announced it like Wade and Bosh.....he wouldn't have as much backlash...
Were there still gonna be angry people? yeah.

But if he didn't make a 1 hr spectacle out of it.....I'm 100% sure that there would be no "burning of jerseys"

100% agreed.

LeBron left cleveland to win a championship. Wouldnt have happend in Cleveland.

But Gilbert fired the GM and coach for lebron, not for himself. thats my main problem. basically started over for lebron cuz lebron wanted to start over and he leaves.

thats one way too look at it..but he shouldnt have made a 1 hour episode just to announce his desicion...that is what made me start to hate him tho..he couldve announced it the way everybody else did and does

I'm sick and tired of people saying he didn't have teammates that were good. He didn't have teammates in 2007 when the Cavaliers got swept by the Spurs in the Finals, but after that, he really did. Let's look at some of them, shall we?

Mo Williams: Averaged 17/4 in Cleveland (15/5 in the playoffs)
Shaquiile O'Neal: Averaged 12/7 in Cleveland (12/6 in the playoffs)
Antawn Jamison: Averaged 18/9 in Cleveland (15/8 in the playoffs)
And now a look at some of the role players:
Delonte West: Averaged 9/3 (8/3 in the playoffs)
Anthony Parker: Averaged 7/3 (8/2 in the playoffs)
Anderson Varejao: Averaged 8/8 (6/7 in the playoffs)
JJ Hickson and Daniel Gibson for christ's sake averaged 9/5 and 6/2 respectively, but for some reason played a combined 10ish MPG in the playoffs

So really, no player in cleveland lost over 4 PPG from the regular season to the playoffs. But you wanna know why Lebron gets so much heat? Well let's look at some other greats who have won titles in this league this past decade

Kobe Bryant: As the leader of the team from the past 2 seasons, he increased his PPG total from 27 in the regular season to 30 in the playoffs, while playing more time for his team. In fact, only twice in his 11 year playoff career as a starter has Kobe Bryant scored less PPG in the playoffs as he did in the regular season, and one of those was during his monster 35 PPG season.

Shaquille O'Neal: Never once in the Laker's 3-peat did Shaquille O'Neal go under 30 PPG for the playoffs. In the regular season those years, he averaged 14, 13, and 11 RPG respectively. In the playoffs those years, he averaged 15 twice (playoff career highs) and 13.

Tim Duncan: Like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan's PPG has only gone down twice from the regular season to the playoffs, and those were by fractions. The higher difference was by 0.4 points a game. He also averages 10 RPG for his career in the regular season, and 12 in the postseason, even grabbing 15 rebound a game one year in the postseason.

Dwyane Wade: Now Wade is really hard to use as an example here because he's really only shown playoff success once, but I can still make a case. He is averaging more PPG, APG, a higher FT%, and a higher #p% (his FG% is the exact same) in the playoffs compared to the regular season. He played his heart out last year too, averaging 33 PPG along with playoff career highs of 7 APG, 41% three point shooting, 56% field goal shooting, and 42 minutes a game. There is nothing more Dwyane Wade could do.

So right now, you see that all of these players ELEVATE THEIR GAMES. This is what I stress the most. Lebron James has only scored more in the postseason than in the regular season ONCE in his 5 year playoff career. Just once. His rebounds went up 1 per game and his assists stayed the same. Lebron James has not elevated his game in the playoffs like a true leader should. That is why he does not have a ring. One man doesn't lead a team to the best record in the NBA two years in a row, he HAD to have had good teammates to help him, and good role players to pick up the slack when he couldn't go on in the regular season, which he did. However, come playoff time, along with plenty of rest having known that the Cavs have homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, Lebron James did not step up. THAT is why Lebron James does not have a ring, not because he did not have good teammates. Lebron leaving to Miami is very heartbreaking for Cleveland, because he's all they have. However, business and business, and even though I don't like it and you probably don't as well, it happened. But do NOT blame his teammates for his failure. As the leader, he was supposed to step up. He didn't. Plain and simple.

"So really, no player in cleveland lost over 4 PPG from the regular season to the playoffs. "

The average marigin of victory is 3 ppg in the nba..so each player losing 4 ppg is something big.

exactly raza.


how come nobody's allowed to say the cavs had a bad supporting cast? they get proven wrong or get ranted upon by cavalier or lebron haters.


so how is this team gonna be so bad without lebron and be a 15 win team like so many people(quite a few of cavalier and lebron haters) are saying

I just hate how it's always LeBron's teammates fault.

He's the leader of the team, he should actually be blamed for the most.

People who say it: My friend. His mom, who has HUGE ti... My other friend. My other friend. My mom. My friends dad.

2009 playoffs.. it was kinda the teammates.

It was EVERYONE.

Basketball is 5 on 5. Every player in the game matters.

yeah they do. lebron in that series mattered a lot. and he played great. the rest of the team mattered. and they didnt play good.

we lost 4 out of 5 matchups.

lol what I meant is it is a team game. Everybody gets credit for the win and everybody should get blame for the loss.

not when one player obviously plays amazing and the rest of the team sucks. its a tema game, another player(COUGHz,moCOUGH) shoulda stepped it up. they couldnt.

And it's not all them entirely "choking".

I mean Orlando and Boston all have AMAZING balanced D's (as in being able to guard all 5 positions).

that doesnt mean that with lebron drawing commanding attention, often drawing double teams, that somebody else couldnt have stepped it up just a little.

i mean, dwest was okay against the magic that year. but just okay

Yeah, West played his heart out in 09.

LeBron James is a guilty as Mike Brown and his team mates were

He couldn't get his level on another level in the playoffs and lead them to a title

The team mates couldn't get open,make shots of the double and kind step up a little bit to support LeBron

Mike Brown's tactic for offense is worthless

There,but this doesn't mean that Cavs won't get in the playoffs...

When LeBron wins couple of championships with the Heat,all of this will be forgotten

I just wonder now,did people use to agree that if LeBron doesn't leave Cleveland that he won't get a title?Just saying