Building Mike Clevinger’s Case For The All Star Game
June 30, 2018Dan Gilbert thanks LeBron in letter following James’ departure to LA
July 2, 2018Four years after “Coming Home” and returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James has decided that he will leave the wine and gold for the second time in his career, signing a four-year, $154 deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, his agency, Klutch Sports Group, announced Sunday night.
— Klutch Sports Group (@KlutchSports) July 2, 2018
Unlike the past two times he has been an unrestricted free agent, it didn’t take James and his representation until almost mid-July to announce where the King would take (or keep) his talents this time around. In fact, it took less than 24 hours after the new league year began, to make the announcement.
After continually signing one-plus-one deals with Cleveland over the past four years, James decided to sign a four-year deal with LA, allowing the Lakers to have plenty of reassurance about his future out west.
According to Yahoo! Sports’ Shams Charania, the deal includes an opt-out in the final year.
LeBron James' new 4-year, $154M agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers includes an opt out in the fourth year, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 2, 2018
The Lakers missed out on Paul George, who decided to re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they didn’t miss out on arguably the best player to ever dribble a basketball.
James and the Cavs ending Cleveland’s 52-year drought without a major sports championship somewhat helps alleviate the pain and him leaving feels much different than it did the first time, in 2010, but it still hurts. There’s a good possibility that the Cavaliers will never be as good as they have been the last four years. That’s truly what hurts.
For Cleveland fans, they won’t have 41 opportunities to watch the best basketball player in the world in person, let alone all the additional times they were able to do so in the postseason. Now if they want to watch James in Cleveland, they will have just one opportunity to do so each season.
WFNY will have more on LeBron’s decision to leave (again), the emotions that have been brought to the surface with him leaving the Cavs for the second time, and everything else Cavs and LeBron related throughout the rest of the upcoming week.
