It appears the toxicity of the Cleveland Cavaliers has come to a head with LeBron James.
According to Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com, James will “100 percent” be leaving the Cavs after this upcoming season due to his relationship with owner Dan Gilbert being “beyond repair”.
NBA source said today: "This will be LeBron's final season in Cleveland. He is 100 percent leaving. Relationship with owners beyond repair."
— Chris Sheridan (@sheridanhoops) August 16, 2017
LeBron has had his run-ins with Gilbert in the past, notably when James decided to leave the first time around for the Heat while the Quicken Loans boss penned that grotesque open letter – in comic sans – decrying the team’s star player publicly.
After appearing to mend their relationship – so much so LeBron decided to rejoin the Cavs – Gilbert this offseason decided to torch that reconstructed bridge with a series of questionable front office calls. This included cutting ties with the team’s GM David Griffin while taking an underwhelming approach to free agency in order to compete with the Warriors this upcoming season.
I’m sorry, signing the corpse of Derrick Rose doesn’t qualify as a serious approach to addressing the team’s needs.
Then there was the whole Kyrie Irving fiasco.
Sure it may be a stretch to place blame on Gilbert for Kyrie wanting out, however given how the Cavs’ owner has done his best to take a giant shit on the team over the summer, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some hand in Kyrie’s disillusionment with Cleveland.
