When LeBron James returned to Cleveland in the summer of 2014, he tacitly guaranteed that he would remain a Cavalier for the rest of his worthwhile NBA career.
His trip to Miami this week, the passive-aggressive subtweets that followed, the supposed dysfunction in the Cavs locker room, the not-so-well-sourced reports that LeBron is interested in leaving Cleveland when his contract expires at the end of this season -- it's all noise. LeBron can't leave, even if he wants to. He's too image conscious, and in coming back to Cleveland, he publicly sold his soul to the city. You don't default on a sale like that.
LeBron's brilliant on-court career will forever be highlighted by the off-court failure that was The Decision, and there's little he can do to change that narrative. There was a level of public catharsis that came when the low-key Decision 2.0 reversed the course of basketball history, but going back to Cleveland didn't negate the effects of leaving it in the first place.
From that point on, LeBron's career has been defined by a clear directive: win a title for Cleveland. It's a feel-good quest that, when LeBron signed, was almost certain to have a feel-good ending, but it would never fully erase history.
Halfway through the 2014-15 season, LeBron's goal of winning a title looked not only possible but probable. And if the Cavs didn't win in year one of LeBron's return to Ohio, the window to win a title would run four, perhaps five years. Certainly the trio of Kevin Love, James, and Kyrie Irving would claim that championship that has eluded Cleveland since 1964.
That narrative changed as quickly as Stephen Curry could get off a 3-pointer.
After the 2015 All-Star Game, it became unimpeachably clear that the Golden State Warriors weren't an early-season fluke. Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson kept getting better, and as the season progressed the notion that a jump-shooting team couldn't win a title looked more and more unfounded. We were in the midst of a roundball revolution. It would be put to the ultimate test in June.
The Warriors were barely challenged in the Western Conference playoffs while the Cavs lost Love in the build-up to the teams' inevitable NBA Finals matchup, only to then lose Irving in Game 1 in Oakland.
LeBron, in one of the great NBA Finals performances of all time, won two games nearly singlehandedly in that series, but the Warriors needed only one adjustment to put Cleveland away in six games, delaying LeBron's once-inevitable achievement by at least a year.
The Warriors have continued, improbably, to get better, and now LeBron, after 12 years of being the NBA's main story, has been overtaken by Curry as the league's top star.
It's easy to explain away the antics that have come out over the past week as the natural byproduct of that usurping. LeBron has been the center of the basketball world's attention since he was 16 years old and now, seemingly overnight, he's not. But by sending out cryptic tweets and creating artificial intrigue into his future plans, he was able to reclaim his throne as the NBA's main needle-mover. Like a petulant child, he might not even be acting out to deliberately get attention -- this might be the natural byproduct of his subconscious angst.
LeBron is not alone in feeling that angst. The Warriors are freaking everyone out. But no one has more to lose in the Golden State revolution than James.
Furthermore, LeBron's actions this week, and the general dysfunction in Cleveland -- which can be directly traced back to a weak-willed ownership who ceded team control to James in exchange for his return -- have created a predictable flurry of reaction.
The go-to headline: Is LeBron considering leaving Cleveland, again?
This is exactly what James, whether consciously nor not, wants. He's been bigger than the franchise since before he arrived in the Cleveland the first time, and he has leveraged that truth at every possible opportunity. LeBron doesn't need Cleveland, but Cleveland surely needs LeBron.
But as the Warriors' stranglehold on the NBA tightens and the Cavs title window inches closer to closure, many have begun to more closely scrutinize LeBron. When the Cavs fired David Blatt and promoted Ty Lue to head coach, LeBron was put directly in the crosshairs. Many who cover James suspected he was behind the move, but the team claimed he was not consulted before Blatt was fired. It didn't matter if that was true or not -- LeBron's honeymoon with the Cleveland fan base was over.
You can't undervalue that as a factor in James' antics this week. He's attempting to regain Cleveland's blind adoration by threatening to leave. You'll wish you hadn't said those things when I'm gone. Teenagers are less transparent.
It's easy to call LeBron's bluff. He won't be leaving Cleveland. Not while he's in his prime, and probably not until his playing career is over. He's too aware of his public persona, and too cognizant of the effects leaving Cleveland had on it the first time around. He can't afford to leave -- he'd never recover as a brand, and if anything has been proven over the last 12 years, it's that LeBron cares an awful lot about his brand.
LeBron returned to Cleveland to wash away the stain of The Decision. The only way to do that is with a championship. While those championship aspirations seem more far-fetched by the day -- something LeBron can claim plenty of responsibility for -- it's far too soon for him concede the battle. LeBron has, at least, five years of excellent basketball left and he, despite what he might want you to think, has no interest playing those years as a pariah.
