This is a pretty damning accusation if you think about it. If you are to believe ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, LeBron basically told Cavs he wasn’t playing in a game because he didn’t feel like it and then went on vacation for two weeks. Here are the quotes which came during the Bill Simmons Podcast.
“[Cavs GM] David Griffin tells the story. He said that LeBron had been moping for weeks,” Windhorst said.
“It was LeBron’s birthday — it was December 30th. They were playing in Atlanta. It was before Atlanta went on their 20-game win streak, so it wasn’t really deemed a big game yet. And they thought LeBron was going to play, and LeBron just decided, ‘I’m not gonna play.’ Like, at the last minute, he told them, ‘I’m not playing.’ Didn’t even come out to the bench, just sat in the back, didn’t come out.”
“[James] had sort of just like waved a bit of a white flag there. He just didn’t feel like playing. He had never done that ever before. He had always just played through it. And so it was after that game, [the Cavaliers] said, ‘Alright, take your two weeks off,’ because he had reached a very low point.”
Doesn’t sound like something LeBron would do, but doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Curious if LeBron tries to deny it or just brush it aside. One thing that can’t be denied is LeBron has absolute power over the Cavs and pretty much can do whatever he wants without any consequences whatsoever.
The Cavs are playing well now, so in retrospect the vacation might have been a good decision, but quitting on your team when there is nothing wrong with you, is pretty bad if true.