When LeBron James announced his return to Cleveland last Friday, he said, “I’m not having a press conference or a party. After this, it’s time to get to work.” Well, before work, there was the matter of attending the FIFA World Cup Final in Brazil.
Shortly after making his decision on Friday, LeBron boarded a flight from Miami to Brazil. Once he arrived, he met up with friend and now reunited teammate Anderson Varejao:
On Saturday, LeBron attended a Nike event and spoke for the first time publicly since his decision. Via Nancy Armour of USA Today, LeBron didn’t elaborate too much on his choice to return to Cleveland, instead choosing to let his Sports Illustrated letter speak for itself:
James’ announcement Friday afternoon that he is returning to his hometown after four years – and two titles – with the Miami Heat shook the sports world. He announced his decision in a Sports Illustrated essay, then left to come to Rio for the World Cup final without any further comment.
But in a Q&A during his Nike appearance, James called it “an exciting time.”
“It’s going to be unbelievable,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
And, he cracked, it reunites him with “one of my favorite teammates,” Brazil native Anderson Varejao.
On Sunday, LeBron attended the World Cup final match between Germany and Argentina as a VIP guest. Here is the full list of people invited to Sunday’s event. Yes, it’s a strange list that included Ashton Kutcher, Daniel Craig and Wyclef Jean.
Sepp Blatter, Daniel Craig, Lebron James and OLIVIER DACOURT. Yes, it's the VIP list for the #WC final tonight: pic.twitter.com/SFeHaNnatE
— Les Rosbifs (@LesRosbifs) July 13, 2014
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At the match, LeBron shared a view from his seats, even calling it the greatest sporting event he’s ever been to:
Lebron made news in the second half, when he captured video of a streaker who ran on the pitch. He posted the video to his Instagram feed for everyone to see:
To cap it off, LeBron took one more photo with his teammate Varejao:
And now, presumably, it’s time to head back home and get to work.
What do you think?
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