cleveland fired up for lebrons return

[MavFan6488]

http://static.grindtv.com/images/1/00/31/49/77/314977.jpg

[Jt.ONE]

butthurt at its finest

[Fpoonsie]

Why'd they blackout their faces?

Was burning a Lebron jersey still illegal in Cleveland the day of "the decision"?

[lefty]

Cant wait for that game

[dbreiden83080]

It's so funny to me that the Cleveland fans put it all on Lebron..

[HarlemHeat37]

I hope he doesn't play, it's a risk to his life..those fans have nothing to lose, they live in Cleveland, it's not like they would be missing out on much if they were gone..death/jail>Cleveland..

[z0sa]

:lmao so incredibly butthurt

[Cry Havoc]

It's so funny to me that the Cleveland fans put it all on Lebron..

Then expected him to win a title with Mo Williams. :lmao

[dbreiden83080]

Then expected him to win a title with Mo Williams. :lmao

He turns down more money to go play with what he thought would be a super-team. Not working out so far but Cavs MGT didn't do what they needed to keep him. So why nothing but Lebron hate from the fans?? If that team was stacked he would have never left..

[duncan228]

How should LeBron handle villain role? Ask Reggie (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-lebronthevillain)
By Brian Mahoney

Dressed as a cowboy, a snake passing near his foot with an Old West setting in the background, LeBron James certainly looks the part.

“Should I accept my role as a villain?” James asks during the scene in his recent Nike commercial.

Absolutely, says someone who played it perfectly.

Reggie Miller was once the NBA’s best-known bad guy, armed with enough bravado to come into Madison Square Garden and shoot down the New York Knicks and shut up Spike Lee all at once.

And when James plays in Cleveland this week for the first time since his bitter departure, Miller said he shouldn’t let all those boos bother him. The hatred from the fans might hurt James, but it also could help the Miami Heat by taking the pressure off his teammates in what’s so far been a disappointing season.

“I used to encourage that, and I hope he takes this approach. I wanted to take the focus off my teammates, so I would do and say things,” Miller said during a phone interview with The Associated Press.

“When you have 20,000 people yelling and screaming at you, four other guys can concentrate on the floor. So every time I touch the basketball and everyone is yelling and chanting and doing things towards me, well four other guys can concentrate. I knew I could concentrate through that and I hope he takes that approach.”

But Miller, the former Indiana Pacers All-Star who will be part of TNT’s trio calling the game Thursday night, concedes that not every player can handle being the guy wearing the target.

James insists he can, saying he “had those boos when I was a Cleveland Cavalier and I’m having them again as a Heat.”

Nothing like he’s gotten this season, with the worst still to come. Besides the hostile environment he’ll face Thursday, James is two weeks away from a trip to New York, where fans who used to adore him will now turn on him after he chose the Heat over the Knicks in free agency.

Miller’s legacy was cemented at the Garden during a 1994 playoff game, when after jawing with Lee, who was taunting the Pacers from his courtside seat, he stunned the Knicks with a sensational fourth quarter. He could flourish when the boos were loudest but notices it isn’t the same yet for James, whose “MVP! MVP!” chants are about to be replaced by ones not suitable for younger ears.

“On the road where you’re just coming into someone’s building and you’re only there two times a year, he was coming in with his white hat,” Miller said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen on Thursday for LeBron and watching some of his games this year, he’s been getting booed and I think it’s a little bit new to him because before he was a poster boy.”

Miller figures he was heavily jeered “anywhere on the Eastern shore board and Chicago.” But before this season, James was more like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, often the most popular player on the court whether home or away—a John Wayne, said Miller, adding it’s not easy to experience it the other way.

“You’ve got to have the right temperament. You’ve got to have the right mindset and I think he’s going to have to learn that, because he is wearing the black hat in every arena he goes to other than American Airlines in Miami,” Miller said.

Making it even tougher for James on Thursday is that some of the taunts will be coming from the same people who once idolized the Ohio native.

“Some of these young kids, they consider him their hero. To see him leave, it’s tough. As sports fans, I guess, that’s where the bad blood usually comes. Your hero now becomes the villain because of it,” Orlando’s Vince Carter said.

Carter was once Canada’s most popular athlete not on skates, earning the nickname “Air Canada” while playing for the Raptors. But the love affair was gone forever when Carter forced his way out of Toronto with a trade to New Jersey, and his first trip back north of the border was probably as close as a player has experienced in recent years to what James will face Thursday, from the extra security to the derisive chants the moment he came out of the tunnel.

Carter shook it off to score 39 points in a Nets victory. Miller thinks James can do the same.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, but he can’t worry about, ‘They don’t love me here anymore, I gave them seven fantastic years and this is it?’ He can’t get caught up into that,” Miller said. “What he needs to do is focus on how he can right the ship of the Miami Heat. He can’t worry about being beloved in Cleveland and Akron, or wherever. He just needs to focus in on the task at hand and that’s winning the basketball game.”

[HarlemHeat37]

Vince pretty much destroyed the Raptors as well as you could possibly destroy your former team..a lot of points, 3 buzzer beaters(2 game winners, 1 game tying), highlights..

Hopefully Lebron does the same, if he decides to play..

[TheMACHINE]

Then expected him to win a title with Mo Williams. :lmao

I bet if Lebron had Dwyane Wade he would win...

oh wait.

[TheMACHINE]

He turns down more money to go play with what he thought would be a super-team. Not working out so far but Cavs MGT didn't do what they needed to keep him. So why nothing but Lebron hate from the fans?? If that team was stacked he would have never left..

so he left that team to play with a team less stacked? Unless you consider Juwan Howard, Erick Dampier, Joel Anthony, Chalmers and Arroyo stacked.

[HarlemHeat37]

I bet if Lebron had Dwyane Wade he would win...

oh wait.


so he left that team to play with a team less stacked? Unless you consider Juwan Howard, Erick Dampier, Joel Anthony, Chalmers and Arroyo stacked.

Make up your mind, which one is it?..

[TheMACHINE]

Theres a difference between playing with another superstar and being in a stacked team.

[CubanMustGo]

Apparently not just Cleveland:

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/6299/lebronreturns.jpg

[SA210]

Go Cavs! :lol

[ElNono]

Apparently not just Cleveland:

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/6299/lebronreturns.jpg

:lol

[dbreiden83080]

Theres a difference between playing with another superstar and being in a stacked team.

Uh your really all over the place here.. If it was about money The Heat was the last place he was going they had less money to offer. They had Wade and Bosh signed that is why Lebron went there. 3 of your 5 starters are stars. He thinks that will equal rings.. It has not worked out yet, but that is why he did it. The Cavs made no changes or moves in that offseason to get LeBron to stay..

[ElNono]

http://static.grindtv.com/images/1/00/31/49/77/314977.jpg

Fired up sounds about right... :lol

[Red Hawk #21]

Lebron can't handle a villain role imho, especially for the fact that he was loved by so many just a few months ago. I just think it's too much of a drastic change for him to be able to accept. Maybe over time though.