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CLEVELAND – LeBron James is no longer in Cleveland to save the Cavaliers.
Finish his blocks, passes, points and his incomparable electric presence.
He was not there to save the Cavaliers from the bad start to the 0-6 season. It's also not there to repair the mess created on Sunday when the team sacked its head-victor in the championship, Tyronn Lue.
James, of course, is now a Laker from Los Angeles, focused on trying to resurrect a legendary team from the fall of the Western Conference.
His absence in Ohio still weighs heavily. He casts a shadow on the board and raises deep questions about a team that went to NBA. final of the last four years and won a title in 2016.
Call it LeBron James Hangover.
"There was a total reliance on LeBron," said Larry Drew, long-time senior team assistant, who suddenly found himself in the uncertain position of what the Cavaliers called the head coach. interim "when Lue was sacked last weekend. "Total dependence," he said, to emphasize this point.
"I'm not just talking about his talent, but about his whole presence," he said. "You can feel it right when he enters the gym. And when this is removed, when he left, it's like, where are you going? All the organization feels it, had to handle it, even the whole city. And this is the fight "
Until now, the fight is real and it is not going well.
When James left Cleveland for the second time, the team made the conscious decision to break with his historic superstar (without the bitter rancor that existed between the owner and James after signing with the Miami Heat in 2010).
This huge James mural that the team had stretched on the broad side of a building near the Quicken Loans arena? Faded away.
Would you like to buy a James No. 23 jersey at the arena team store? Good luck.
(This week, when I asked for one, a saleswoman laughed before answering, "Um, that guy is playing for the Lakers now.")
Shortly before the start of the regular season, Lue, confident and confident, was sitting on a training bench and explained how to guide a team – Cleveland without James – was very different from the one he had coached several times. finals. "Everything LeBron touched turned into gold for everyone," Lue said. "Losing a guy like that is hard, but we need to change the culture, and I think we can do it."
Lue said he was considering relying on his veterans while gradually developing a young and unproven kernel.
Could the Cavaliers make the playoffs? "It'll take work," he said then, "but yes."
Then came the brutal reality. Half a dozen competitions in the season, the Cavaliers had led none in the second half of their match. Lue and the front-office team struggled to know how young players should be on the field. The Atlanta Hawks – who should be among the worst in the NBA this season – came to town for Cleveland's inaugural home game and started with a 22-point win.
Quicken Loans Arena looked like a morgue, just like after James left for Miami. Tickets were sold on the Internet for $ 2.
In the aftermath of a 12-point loss to the Pacers in which the Cavaliers scored less than a third of their 3 points and allowed Indiana to shoot 64.9 percent of the ground, Lue was fired. "That took me breathless – devastating," said Drew, who was extremely close to Lue.
When he spoke with General Manager Koby Altman and that he was asked to temporarily take over the team, Drew, a former NB member. The player who was head coach in Atlanta and Milwaukee had a firm answer: "I am very reluctant to do that. Very reluctant. "
Thus began an unsightly dance. The Cavaliers' players praised Lue on social media and expressed their anger that such an accomplished coach lasted less than two weeks. James did the same thing on Twitter. Before the Lakers played against the Minnesota Timberwolves the following night, he told reporters: "This whole situation is beyond me."
And beyond the Cavaliers. The team seems to have sent Lue back without a specific plan to replace him.
Drew is very respected in the league and by the Cavaliers' players, but his position has not yet been clearly defined.
He told me that he considered himself a substitute teacher for the moment. Will he get a new contract with a suitable salary for a head coach? What about a long-term commitment for him to play this role? Otherwise, he mentioned the return to his former position of assistant head coach, while the team recruited a new leader.
The Cavaliers have not decided what to do yet.
It's important to remember that even during James' two epochs in Cleveland – the first of his writing from 2003 to 2010, when he went to the Heat; the second from 2014 to 2018 – the team was never far from the turmoil. James had a lot to say about how the organization was run, about the players who entered the fold and about the coaches.
Lue became head coach after the dismissal of David Blatt in January 2016, as the team was coming out of a conference championship and held a 30-11 record. Blatt did not get along with James. Lue and James were close for a long time.
But at the time, it was different: James was always there to make sure the ship did not sink.
"Him, you can count on the excitement," said Ronald Goolsby, holder of the season card, dressed in Brown and Gold Cavaliers while he was in the stands Tuesday night during Cleveland's victory against the Hawks. Atlanta. "You can bet on wins, playoffs, N.B.A. final, and in reality he was going to solve all the problems they had.
Like many fans, Goolsby said he had found a way to accept LeBron's loss, to reduce expectations, not to wait too long for the team for a while.
There was a pragmatic resignation in his voice, the same resignation as that of all the fans I spoke to at Quicken Loans that night. But also determined hope.
Goolsby looked down at the court and smiled. The Cavaliers were playing with sustained energy and something close to the confidence they had in the LeBron era.
The Cavaliers trained by Drew jumped on Atlanta from the start. For the first time this season, they led for a second half. They ended up winning 136-114.
The Cavaliers and Drew players left the field to celebrate their first victory. But it remains a long, difficult and uncertain season.
The hangover LeBron James is not an easy cure.
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