Back in 2007, a young LeBron James took the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals for the first time in his 17-year NBA career. LeBron was 22 at the time and even though he reached the big stage, he couldn’t do much against a San Antonio Spurs team that was merciless with the young King and his Cavs.
13 years later, we’re still talking about that Finals. Bron received a pass for that Finals since he was very young and his team wasn’t the best of all. He carried those Cavaliers to the biggest series of all and couldn’t do much more than that; the Spurs were clearly the best team. However, in recent days, one former player claimed he could have been the X-factor for that team to win the championship against the Spurs.
Talking with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson and Sean Deveney, Michael Redd revealed LeBron James believes that Redd could have helped him defeat the Spurs in 2007. Redd said that he could have been a big problem for the Spurs.
“You know, me and LeBron had that conversation over the years and we probably would’ve won a championship,” Redd tells Heavy Live With Scoop B.
“At that point, my career – and LeBron was great back then, but he was not who he is now. His savviness, his experience what he learned from D-Wade in 2011, 2012 and 2013 he became a different player from the 2005-2007. But I think still though, with the cast that he had I think we would’ve won a championship. I would’ve taken the pressure off him. I could score, close…yeah. I enjoy playing and I love the 4th Quarter; I do miss that being removed from the game. I loved the pressure packed moments. I’ve always embraced them. You know, being on the edge and being in the NBA and out of the NBA as a rookie builds character in you and a toughness to persevere and I just enjoyed you know, just being the guy who won the game or who lost the game and that probably would’ve helped LeBron in Cleveland.”
What if Redd was on that team? “Well, I always gave San Antonio problems – personally when I played San Antonio in that era,” Redd tells Heavy Live With Scoop B.
“They would put Bruce Bowen on me, or whatever which we had great success against San Antonio for whatever reason in Milwaukee. It was certain teams that we had success against and San Antonio was on our radar which was a team that we could be for whatever reason. So LeBron who he was back then, being just a machine that he was and then the scoring ability with myself – that’s a hard combination to tackle so, obviously no doubt San Antonio had the savvy; they won championships. Coach Pop…it would’ve been a heck of a series for sure.”
Redd added that he and LeBron had this conversation in 2008 while they both were part of Team USA.
“In 2008, really,” he said.
“During the Olympic run in ’06, ’07 and ’08, there was a swirl like ‘Like, man…what if we played together? Like, hmmmm?’ because we all enjoyed playing together at that time frame; you know Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo, Chris Paul, and all of us were playing together and it was like, ‘What if we played together on the NBA teams?’ and that conversation started then and then it manifested itself in 2010.”
They never played together during LeBron’s first year in the league, but Bron could find the help he needed to win a championship in 2010. He took his talents to Miami and joined Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Heat, where he went to four straight NBA Finals, winning two championships.
If LeBron won that title in 2007, his legacy would be even bigger today. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the proper help, something that Redd could have provided.
