With the Miami Heat set to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in Brazil today at 5:00 PM E/T, LeBron James‘ name can’t stay out of headlines.
Days after Chris Bosh remarked that he hadn’t spoken to LeBron since his departure via ESPN.com,
Asked by reporters if he had talked to his former teammate since James’ decision to leave the Heat, Bosh answered a succinct, “No.”
As to whether he was looking forward to seeing James on Saturday at the game in Rio de Janeiro, he replied with a lukewarm: “Yeah … I don’t know.”
“I’m in the mode where I’m trying to lead my team, help these guys out around here,” he said.
“If guys aren’t in this locker room I don’t have much time for them—if any.”
James responded with comments of his own following Friday’s practice, via Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com:
“I know a lot of words have been coming out of their camp as of late and some of it is surprising. We’ve got so much history together. … It doesn’t take away from what we accomplished [in Miami] and I know that.”
The quips didn’t end there, however, as James ended his statement with this in regards to Bosh:
“I’ve talked to D. Wade. Obviously, I haven’t talked to Chris. But I haven’t seen them.”
The Heat and Cavaliers don’t play a meaningful regular season game versus each other until Christmas Day, but the rivalry has already taken on a life of its own due to the passive aggressive swipes at one another.
The recent comments by CB4 haven’t been the only negative jabs aimed at LeBron from the Heat’s side. During media day, the team refused to mention James by name. In fact, Mario Chalmers referred to him as “that guy.” In addition, when asked about playing alongside LeBron in a recent interview with Northeast Ohio Media Group, Chalmers responded with,
“LeBron is a dominant player so if he feels like something is not going his way, he’s going to say something about it. For Kyrie, he’s going to have to adjust to that and LeBron is going to have to adjust to Kyrie. It’s going to be a different factor for Kyrie.”
James’ long-time friend Dwyane Wade referred to last year’s run as “not fun.” Bosh even added fuel to the fire by opining that Kevin Love would have a hard time adjusting to playing with the former MVP.
One can take these comments from the Heat as being bitter over LeBron’s departure. While that may be true, there is one positive of all of this drama surrounding ‘The King’s’ departure from South Florida—it’s giving the franchise motivation for this upcoming season.
Nobody is giving the Heat a chance to repeat as Eastern Conference Champions without the NBA’s best player. Outside of the hurt feelings of seeing one of their best friends leave for Cleveland, Miami is also pissed because the media has declared the team dead in the water without James. In essence, everybody is saying the team sucks without LeBron.
It doesn’t get any more disrespectful than that for guys like Wade, Bosh, Chalmers, Chris Andersen, and Norris Cole, who all played key roles when the Heat lifted up championship banners in American Airlines Arena.
It’ll be an awkward handshake to say the least when the former ‘Big Three’ meet up for the first time since LeBron’s departure in Rio De Janiero on Saturday.
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