LeBron James’ Unceremonious Homecoming Defeat Shouldn’t Set Standard

By Cody Williams @TheSizzle20 on October 30, 2014

There were commercials, countless hours of news coverage, days’ worth of discussion among fans, and so much more ballyhoo surrounding the return of LeBron James to Cleveland, as he and the Cavaliers took the court for their season opener on Thursday night against the New York Knicks. The hype was near uncontainable.

After the chalk was thrown and the ball was tipped, though, that same hype was nowhere to be found.

While Kyrie Irving and other new Cleveland addition Kevin Love both delivered nice performances on their home floor to begin the 2014-15 NBA season, LeBron struggled mightily.  He finished the night with only 17 points, five rebounds and four assists in 43 minutes of play. Even more disappointing, though, is the fact that he shot only 5-15 from the floor, hit just one of his five attempts from beyond-the-arc, and turned the ball over a lofty eight times on the evening.

From the opening tip, James seemed like the moment was obviously getting to him. Unlike in playoffs past where people skewered him for shrinking from the moment and not trying to harness it, it was actually the polar opposite on Thursday night. He was playing like he wanted to put on the greatest show that Cleveland had ever seen and like his body wasn’t going to be able to contain all of the adrenaline.

It felt like he was rushing everything, and he deserves to be admonished for a poor showing in his homecoming. Though there is blame to be placed elsewhere on the Cavaliers roster, you can chalk the 95-90 loss for Cleveland up to LeBron for the most part. What you can’t do, though, is say that this is going to be the case for the rest of the season.

This game was one that put LeBron under enormous pressure. Whether that’s the fault of the media, fan expectations, or his own mentality doesn’t really matter; the crux of the issue is that James clearly didn’t look like himself on the basketball floor out there having fun and doing things that no other player in the league is able to.

Now that the pressure from this one moment is gone and as the new-look Cavaliers begin to develop more of a rapport with one another, this team is going to start looking vastly different. More pressing given the lackluster homecoming of LeBron, though, James is also going to start looking like the best player in the world right now once again.

Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.