LeBron James is no longer a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, in case you somehow missed the last month-plus of NBA news. James is now in the Western Conference for the first time after inking a four-year max deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The NBA released the national TV schedule for opening week, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Wednesday, and unsurprisingly, LeBron and the Lakers have quite the presence. The Cavs, meanwhile, do not (also not surprising), but it did leave some wondering when we’d be getting the LeBron homecoming game.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin answered that question later in the day as he reported November 21 would be LeBron’s return to Cleveland, which is conveniently the day before Thanksgiving. That was big news in Cleveland and naturally the Cleveland Plain-Dealer had it as a significant story on its sports page on Thursday morning, but they decided to have a little fun with the headline, using Lonzo Ball as the Lakers top-billed player, with LeBron getting a mention in the subheading.
#PettySZN pic.twitter.com/iJhVAV6JMB
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) August 9, 2018
There is far less animosity towards LeBron leaving Cleveland this time around compared to in 2010, but there’s still room for fans to be upset and the Plain-Dealer‘s efforts here will surely cause some fans to chuckle. That said, it’d be pretty surprising for LeBron to get anything close to the negative reception he got in his first game back with the Heat, given that he did deliver Cleveland the championship they’d waited so long for.
