LeBron James has achieved many incredible feats in his career, and getting to the NBA Finals in 2007 with the Cleveland Cavaliers is near the top of the list. James and the Cavaliers defied all odds to make it that far, but he has now thrown some shade at his former teammates on the Mind the Game podcast.
“I’ve always loved the players that breathe so much confidence into his teammates that make them believe that they’re actually better than what the f*** they really are,” James said. “… I’ve been able to do that with a few of my teams. I mean, I don’t go to the NBA Finals in 2006 with that team if I’m not able to make them believe that they are greater than what they were.”
James got the year wrong there, and many would believe he was wrong to say this out loud, too. That Cavaliers team certainly was not the most talented to ever make the NBA Finals, though, and it’s why James gets so much praise for taking them there.
James averaged 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game for the Cavaliers in 2006-07. He was his usual excellent self but didn’t have much help, at least offensively.
Larry Hughes was the second-leading scorer for the 2006-07 Cavaliers with averages of 14.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game. That’s not great, and there were only two other players on that team who averaged more than 10 points a game.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas put up 11.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.6 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game. Drew Gooden, meanwhile, averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game.
Eric Snow, Sasha Pavlovic, and Daniel Gibson were the three others to start at least 10 games for the Cavaliers that season. To say that wasn’t a great supporting cast is by no means an unfair statement.
To be fair to them, though, they did play their part in the Cavaliers being one of the best defensive teams in the NBA that season. Their 100.6 defensive rating in 2006-07 ranked fourth in the league.
While James would deservingly then steal all the headlines in that magical playoff run, their defense was once again making life difficult for the opposition. The Cavaliers had a 99.3 defensive rating in the postseason, which was good enough for second. Their opponents didn’t even get to 90 points in 13 of the 20 playoff games, so the supporting cast does deserve some credit.
Ultimately, though, the Cavaliers’ deficiencies on offense were going to prove to be their downfall. Not having another good-to-great option on offense led to the San Antonio Spurs sweeping them in the Finals. The Spurs threw a lot of bodies at James to limit his impact, and the rest of the team wasn’t able to step up. They certainly came up short there.
This isn’t the first time that James has thrown some shade at those former teammates. LeBron stated on the Pat McAfee Show that he still can’t believe he took the Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals, and you’d understand if they’d be a little bit upset about these comments.
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