LeBron James, Cavaliers Respond To Draymond Green’s Warriors Parade Rant

LeBron James says he is happy Draymond Green mentioned him following the Golden State Warriors’ NBA championship win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night, though the King made clear he disagrees with one of Green’s claims about him.

LeBron James, Cavs respond to Draymond Green’s ‘Superteam’ Comments

On Thursday — the day of the Dubs’ victory parade — Green first taunted 32-year-old James by wearing a T-shirt that read “Quickie Arena,” poking fun at the Cavs’ elimination from this year’s NBA finals after losing to the Warriors in five games. (The elimination was a relatively quick one for the Warriors, who defeated the Cavs at their own Quicken Loans Arena in two of the five contests, hence the wordplay on the term “quick.”)

Green also mocked James for his newly shaven head. The Golden State forward posted a photo of a scowling James on Instagram with the caption, “Them dubs finally made him go bald!!! Congrats bro @kingjames.”

“I’ve been feeling good,” James says, adding that he’d been considering shaving his head for some time but denying that the Warriors caused him to do it now.

“If that was the case, I would’ve grown an afro,” the All-Star said.

“It makes you look 10 pounds lighter,” James’ teammate Channing Frye joked about the Kings’ lack of hair on his and fellow Cavs star Richard Jefferson’s podcast “Road Trippin” on Thursday.

Jefferson, who has adopted the bald look for nearly his entire NBA career, agreed that it felt good to sport the look.

When James appeared as a guest on his teammates’ and sideline reporter Allie Clifton’s podcast on Thursday, he talked little about his appearance, however. Instead, James spent most of his time addressing a rant Green went on during the Warriors’ victory parade about how James initiated the so-called “superteam” trend.

“They want to talk about super teams this, super team that, I never played on a super team,” Green said in reference to the Cavaliers star sharing that view of his career after the last contest (Game 5) of the NBA Finals on Monday. “You started the super team, bro! I didn’t join a super team.

“Hey Slim (Kevin Durant), I don’t know what you just did Slim, but you did something to them boys. We appreciate you joining the super team,” Green yelled at the parade in California on Thursday.

James denied he was the first to play on any such highly-respected team.

“No,” James stated when Green’s superteam comments were brought up in the episode released Friday. “No. I mean in 2003, the Lakers combined Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Shaq and Kobe. And in ’96, when [Michael] Jordan was retired, the Rockets joined Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler all on the same team.

The common thread between those Lakers and Rockets teams and this year’s Warriors is that all three franchises had a title core in place when they added their new pieces or attempted to build another ring.

When Green said the word “superteams,” he was likely referring to the Miami Heat, whom James joined in 2010, and the Cavaliers, whom he returned to in 2014.

 

Jefferson and James also praised Durant, the 2017 Finals MVP who scored 39 points in the deciding Game 5. “He’s incredible,” Jefferson said of Durant, calling the former Oklahoma City Thunder star the second-best player in the NBA and saying the equivalent of him joining the Warriors would have been James going to the Celtics in 2014 after they eliminated the Cavs to win the 2008 national championship. Jefferson also praised the Warriors for breaking records (73 straight wins in 2015-2016) and for claiming two of the last three league titles. Durant signed with the Warriors in free agency in the summer of 2016.

“He’s a talent of his own,” James said of Durant. “A guy that’s damn-near 7-foot that handles the ball the way he does, the athletic ability that he has and the shooting, the ability to shoot the ball from anywhere — he’s just a rare talent that our league hasn’t seen.”

James also fired back at Green’s bald look taunt with this photo of him:

Green seemed to find it amusing.

“Yeah, that was funny; that was real funny,” Green said of James’ response. “It’s all in good fun. At the end of the day, it was a great series. We were able to prevail. They won last year. Just for him to have that response shows his character, to obviously not be down by the fact (that they lost). Light jokes. I think that was pretty cool.”

Evidently, James and Green seem to get along relatively well despite being fierce opponents.

OSTON, MA – MAY 25: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrates his dunk in the third quarter as Jae Crowder #99 of the Boston Celtics looks on during Game Five of the 2017 NBA Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden on May 25, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts.