The NBA season is reaching its climax and the Golden State Warriors are in a position to win their third championship in four years. Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Warriors has been met with mixed reactions from fans, but he has been one of the most prolific scorers in the league this year.
The has paul george won a championship is a quote from the book You Will Probably Be the Piece He Needs to Win a Championship.
Many folks in Cleveland were disappointed when LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in 2010. Fans were heartbroken, and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was angry, as you may recall.
The Cavs, on the other hand, were not going to allow The King simply win a championship with his new team. Former NBA All-Star Baron Davis reportedly said that the club forced him to swear that he would not join the Heat after the two sides formally split ways in 2011.
In 2011, Baron Davis was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
On March 29, 2011, Baron Davis of the Cleveland Cavaliers plays against the Miami Heat. | Getty Images/Jared Wickerham
During his peak, Davis was a dynamic NBA player. With the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, he was selected to two All-Star games, scored over 20.0 points per game in several seasons, and led the league in steals per game twice.
Davis, on the other hand, was nearing the end of his NBA career in 2011, when the Los Angeles Clippers sold him and a first-round selection to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Jamario Moon and Mo Williams.
The Cavaliers were in the midst of a rebuilding process at the time, having lost LeBron James to the Miami Heat the previous summer. And the Davis trade really helped them in the long run, since the choice they acquired in the transaction eventually became Kyrie Irving.
Davis, on the other hand, only appeared in 15 games for Cleveland. Even though he had a good season, averaging 13.9 points and 6.1 assists, the Cavs nonetheless invoked the league’s previous Collective Bargaining Agreement’s amnesty provision on him after the season. Teams may waive a player with one amnesty and the contract would not count against their salary limit.
Davis moved to the New York Knicks in 2011-12, his last season in the NBA, after the Cavs released him.
The UCLA graduate could have ended up in Miami alongside James if he hadn’t made a commitment to the Cavaliers.
Baron Davis said that he had to guarantee the Cavaliers that he would not join LeBron James’ Heat.
On May 6, 2012, LeBron James (left) makes his way past Baron Davis of the New York Knicks during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference first round. | Getty Images/Robert Duyos/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service
Baron Davis recently went on No Chill with Gilbert Arenas and said that he wants to join LeBron James and the Miami Heat in 2011. However, he claims that the Cavs effectively prevented him from doing so.
On the Sept. 28 show, Davis stated, “We’re going in off the lockout, and I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m about to get this amnesty.” “… So, Chris Grant (former Cavaliers general manager) comes in and says, ‘Yeah, dude, we going to amnesty, but we really want to retain you because we have Kyrie here.’”
Davis didn’t seem to mind coaching the rookie player, but the next remark the Cavs’ general manager reportedly made was very intriguing.
“But we’ll amnesty you,” he said. “He was like, ‘under one condition,’” Davis recalled, adding that if the Cavs amnestied him, he wanted to move to Miami.
“He was like, ‘You can’t go to Miami and [pair up] with LeBron because you’ll probably be the component he needs to win a championship,’ Davis said. ‘Huh?’ I exclaimed. So, you’re essentially telling me you’re not going to amnesty me because you know I’m going to Miami?’ ‘Yeah, if you decide or promise not to travel to Miami — you can go anyplace else — we’ll amnesty you,’ he said. And I was like, ‘All right, that’s great.’ And that’s how I ended up in New York.”
The Cavaliers refused to comment, citing the fact that Chris Grant is no longer with the team.
Davis probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference for the Heat in the first place. In 2011-12, he only appeared in 29 games, but Miami still won the title. But his remarks only serve to highlight the Cavs’ hatred for James when he departed Cleveland in 2010.
When LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami, the Cavs were furious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afpgnb 9bA4
The Cavs’ apparent effort to make it more difficult for LeBron James to win a championship wasn’t the first time the team — or at least certain members of it — expressed displeasure with The King’s choice.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert sent a letter to Cleveland supporters after James’ formal Heat announcement, calling the decision a “cowardly betrayal,” according to ESPN. He also said that James announced his choice after a “multi-day, egotistical, self-promotional build-up ending with a national TV special of his’decision’ unlike anything ever ‘witnessed’ in the history of sports and possibly the history of entertainment.”
Both parties seem to have made amends, as James returned to the Cavs in 2014 and led them to a championship in 2016. But the Cavaliers were going through a rough patch at the time, and they didn’t seem to want to see their former hero make it to the promised land.
Basketball Reference provided the statistics.
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