This has been a strange season for the NBA’s defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers. Injuries have complicated head coach Tyronn Lue’s original plans of having his star players well-rested for another run at the Larry O’Brien trophy, and acclimating several new players into their rotation has been an ongoing process.
So far this month, the Cavs are carrying a 6-and-9 record, and by most accounts, the sky is falling. There are only nine games remaining in this year’s regular season. By now, most critics are asking the question: “Can the Cavs repeat as champions?”
After this morning’s shootaround in Chicago, Cavs superstar small forward LeBron James was asked about trying to repeat and what he has learned from the process. “The King,” as James is justly known, seemed a bit under the weather, but gave an honest reply.
“Well, the process is different every year,” James said. “I’ve been in this position, where you’re trying to repeat, so I know what it takes.”
James, a man who has made it to six straight NBA Finals, knows what it takes to hoist that golden trophy ball at the end of the year.
“I know how taxing it can be, from the standpoint that the competition gets motivated to play you every single night,” James continued. “But also, you can’t short-change it or shortcut it, because you have that feeling of what it felt like to win a championship. You have to get back to the point where you’re thinking about, ‘OK, how hard did it take for us to get there?’ You know, it’s human nature sometimes to kind of take a step backwards, but you know, for us, we want to be in a position where we want to be legendary. You have to take this process very seriously.”
