LeBron James just poured more salt into Cleveland’s open wound, saying that he still harbors hate for some in the city he has despised since he was a kid growing up in nearby Akron, Ohio. But he also entertained the possibility of returning to the Cavs one day if he is accepted back.
“Clevelanders, because they were the bigger-city kids when we were growing up, looked down on us. So we didn’t actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up,” James said in an interview with GQ magazine. “There’s a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.”
James took time to roast Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert like a Thanksgiving turkey, accusing Gilbert of using him and never really caring about him. When James announced that he was taking his talents “to South Beach,” Gilbert erupted in a hate-filled public tirade against James that may be unprecedented in the history of American sports.
“My mother always told me, ‘You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You’ll get a good sense of their character.’ Me and my family have seen the character of that man,” James said.
That may explain why James never returned any of Gilbert’s calls after the Cavs were eliminated in the NBA conference semifinals in last year’s playoffs by the Boston Celtics.
Despite that hatred growing up and the way Cleveland fans hate James now, the new member of the Heat said he isn’t ruling out playing for the Cavaliers again. “If there was an opportunity for me to return and those fans welcome[d] me back, that’d be a great story.”
As an Akron native myself, I can attest to the complex, love-hate relationship that some residents have for their bigger-brother city that sits 40 minutes up Interstate 77 from Akron. –terry shropshire
