{"id":31431,"date":"2014-07-11T15:32:12","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T19:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=31431"},"modified":"2014-07-11T15:32:12","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T19:32:12","slug":"lebron-im-coming-home-to-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=31431","title":{"rendered":"LeBron: I’m Coming Home To Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BY\u00a0LEBRON JAMES (AS TOLD TO LEE JENKINS)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It\u2019s where I walked. It\u2019s where I ran. It\u2019s where I cried. It\u2019s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I\u2019m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn\u2019t realize that four years ago. I do now.<\/p>\n

Remember when I was sitting up there at the Boys & Girls Club in 2010? I was thinking, This is really tough. I could feel it. I was leaving something I had spent a long time creating. If I had to do it all over again, I\u2019d obviously do things differently, but I\u2019d still have left. Miami, for me, has been almost like college for other kids. These past four years helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better man. I learned from a franchise that had been where I wanted to go. I will always think of Miami as my second home. Without the experiences I had there, I wouldn\u2019t be able to do what I\u2019m doing today.<\/p>\n

I went to Miami because of\u00a0D-Wade<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CB<\/a>. We made sacrifices to keep\u00a0UD<\/a>. I loved becoming a big bro to\u00a0Rio<\/a>. I believed we could do something magical if we came together. And that\u2019s exactly what we did! The hardest thing to leave is what I built with those guys. I\u2019ve talked to some of them and will talk to others. Nothing will ever change what we accomplished. We are brothers for life.\u00a0 I also want to thank Micky Arison and Pat Riley for giving me an amazing four years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m doing this essay because I want an opportunity to explain myself uninterrupted. I don\u2019t want anyone thinking: He and Erik Spoelstra didn\u2019t get along.\u00a0<\/em>\u2026\u00a0He and Riles didn\u2019t get along<\/em>. \u2026\u00a0The\u00a0Heat<\/a>\u00a0couldn\u2019t put the right team together<\/em>. That\u2019s absolutely not true.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not having a press conference or a party. After this, it\u2019s time to get to work.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what\u2019s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.<\/p>\n

I always believed that I\u2019d return to Cleveland and finish my career there. I just didn\u2019t know when. After the season, free agency wasn\u2019t even a thought. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn\u2019t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.<\/p>\n

To make the move I needed the support of my wife and my mom, who can be very tough. 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, \u201cOK, I don\u2019t want to deal with these people ever again.\u201d 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? I\u2019ve met with Dan, face-to-face, man-to-man. We\u2019ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I\u2019ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not promising a championship. I know how hard that is to deliver. We\u2019re not ready right now. No way. Of course, I want to win next year, but I\u2019m realistic. It will be a long process, much longer than it was in 2010. My patience will get tested. I know that. I\u2019m going into a situation with a young team and a new coach. I will be the old head. But I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn\u2019t know they could go. I see myself as a mentor now and I\u2019m excited to lead some of these talented young guys. I think I can help\u00a0Kyrie Irving<\/a>\u00a0become one of the best point guards in our league. I think I can help elevate\u00a0Tristan Thompson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Dion Waiters<\/a>. And I can\u2019t wait to reunite with\u00a0Anderson Varejao<\/a>, one of my favorite teammates.<\/p>\n

But this is not about the roster or the organization. I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I\u2019m from. I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there\u2019s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.<\/p>\n

In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m ready to accept the challenge. I\u2019m coming home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0LEBRON JAMES (AS TOLD TO LEE JENKINS) \u00a0 Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It\u2019s where I walked. It\u2019s where I ran. It\u2019s where I cried. It\u2019s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88910,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-sports","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}