Was LeBron James a True Recruiter First Time Around?
Last night LeBron James talked about a couple of stories that have had Cleveland Cavaliers fans interested. The first was innocent, and even funny enough, that he set a pick on Matthew Dellavedova because he forgot what team he played for. James was a little aggressive in his response however:
"“For non-basketball people, my job was to show and for Delly to go under me,” James said. “We didn’t get the call right at the time. Delly was supposed to slide under me and we kind of ran into each other. For non-basketball people, they like to critique everything I do.”"
The view we saw, not sure if we are considered “non-basketball people,” looked like he put his arms down in pick fashion but we could be wrong.
Either you want to play here or you don’t.
He also answered questions about him as a recruiter. Many have often said that James did not recruit players to play in Cleveland or didn’t try hard enough to get them to come. For Cavs fans one, of the many, exciting thing is that James has already played a huge role in bringing in Kevin Love, Mike Miller, James Jones and Shawn Marion. His recruiting pitch could also help acquire Ray Allen soon.
James was dismissive of the thought that he didn’t recruit the first time in Cleveland:
"“I recruited Michael Redd, Joe Johnson,” he said. “I recruited Chris Bosh. I recruited a lot of guys. We just didn’t win, so they didn’t want to come to Cleveland.“Either you want to play here or you don’t. I recruited Larry Hughes. He was one of the top free agents that summer.”"
Yet was LeBron a “true” recruiter?
When college football coaches are on the recruiting trails they can often struggle if players believe they could be fired but even more so if players think that coach is looking to move on to bigger and better. Committing to three or four years to a coach who might bolt at any moment is difficult for high schoolers to do.
The same was true of professional basketball players and James. James wouldn’t and didn’t commit to being in Cleveland for a long period of time. He actually did the opposite and did everything in his power to keep his ability to move on obvious. Reports were that even players like Trevor Ariza wouldn’t sign with the Cavs because James would not commit that he would stick around for a few years. Why would a player sign to play with LeBron for four or five years if they didn’t know he would stick around for more than two?
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Only one answer: Money. Larry Hughes came because the Cavs offered him a huge deal. Reportedly no one was close to offering Hughes the level of contract the Cavs did. Hughes was willing to come play for the Cavs, even though James would not commit, because it made a ton of sense, a ton of cash.
LeBron was right about one thing: “Either you want to play here or you don’t.”
The players he said he was recruiting were unsure whether he wanted to play in Cleveland so they chose other destinations.
Now that it is clear that James wants to play here his recruiting efforts will work far more often. Winning two titles helps as well but the larger issue is that players will know that they will have the best player in the game next to them for their entire contract.
Was LeBron James a “true” recruiter? Nope, but now he is and we all get to reap the rewards!
What do you think of James’ recruiting the first time around?