LeBron James: I'm going back to Cleveland, goodbye Miami

Cleveland celebrates as the best player in the NBA returns to play in his home state

Published July 11, 2014 4:29PM (EDT)

LeBron James helped drive the discussion as basketball players replaced the head of their union last month.      (Reuters/Chris Keane)
LeBron James helped drive the discussion as basketball players replaced the head of their union last month. (Reuters/Chris Keane)

King James is coming home.

In a first-person essay just published on Sports Illustrated's web site, James writes that he wants to bring a title to championship-starved Cleveland, and that he will leave the Miami Heat and sign with the Cavaliers.

James won two titles alongside Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, and played for two more. He writes:

When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission. I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.

There were hard feelings when James, an Akron native, left the long-suffering Cavaliers for sun-drenched Miami. As James writes:

The letter from Dan Gilbert, the booing of the Cleveland fans, the jerseys being burned -- seeing all that was hard for them. My emotions were more mixed. It was easy to say, “OK, I don’t want to deal with these people ever again.” But then you think about the other side. What if I were a kid who looked up to an athlete, and that athlete made me want to do better in my own life, and then he left? How would I react?


By Salon Staff

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Cleveland Cavaliers Lebron James Miami Heat Nba Sports Illustrated