On Tuesday night, Kyrie Irving will make his much-anticipated return to Cleveland, just months after asking the Cavaliers to trade him and getting dealt to the Celtics. And the belief is that Irving will get booed—a lot—during his first game back at Quicken Loans Arena, especially since he made some disparaging comments about Cleveland just last week. But will it be as bad as it was for LeBron James when he made a similar return to Cleveland back in 2010 after leaving the Cavaliers to join the Heat?
No way. At least, that’s what LeBron himself thinks. LeBron and his new Cavaliers teammate Dwyane Wade sat down for an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols over the weekend that aired on Monday night—the same interview that featured LeBron admitting to being cheap AF—and during it, LeBron was asked if he thinks Irving is going to get the same kind of reception he did in 2010 when he takes the court in Cleveland on Tuesday night. And LeBron was quick to say that he doesn’t think it’s going to be anywhere close to what he endured.
"Nooooo," LeBron said, as Wade agreed with his assessment of the situation. "No. Everybody’s good. Everybody’s good. KD last year in Oklahoma City. Paul George gonna go back to Indiana. D-Wade is gonna go to Chicago. Kyrie’s coming back to Cleveland. No. They will be fine. People were throwing batteries at us. He’ll be fine."
LeBron also, very briefly, touched on his fractured relationship with Irving—or "The Kid" as he insists on calling him these days. He said that he wishes he could have kept playing side-by-side with Irving, but he also maintained that he isn’t going to hold a grudge against him.
"At the end of the day, the kid did what he wanted to do," LeBron said. "That was his destiny. And like I said, the three years that we had together, unbelievable three years. I wish we could have continued that, but it didn’t work itself out. So now, my energy is just to the guys that’s in The Land."
You can watch LeBron and Wade’s entire interview with Nichols above. Outside of talking about Irving’s return to Cleveland and LeBron’s frugal ways, they also discussed their infamous banana boat photo, LeBron dishing out fatherhood advice to Wade, and LeBron’s jealousy for Wade’s hair.
