There is an old saying that those who don’t follow history are doomed to repeat it.
Clearly LeBron James, Dan Gilbert and the Cleveland Cavaliers are not believers in this saying, or haven’t spent much time following their own tainted history.
Ever since LeBron made his long awaited decision to return home, talk circling around the NBA is that Cleveland was an immediate contender in the east.
It’s certainly believable considering the state of the Eastern Conference and the building blocks and foundational pieces that LeBron and company are going to be able to work with.
However, rather than be satisfied with having a team that was a contender and a team that could build to something special, Cleveland seems to be on a path to overhaul their youthful list for one Kevin Love.
It is a brave move. It is a bold move. It is a blockbuster move. But if we are to follow history we would say that this is a failed move.
History lesson number one for Dan Gilbert and LeBron James is from LeBron’s former team the Miami Heat. Miami were considered to have a super trio and support cast that could overcome any opponent. For two years that was true as they swept to consecutive titles.
However, in the south of America, namely in San Antonio, Texas, a wonder-coach by the name of Gregg Popovich was plotting the downfall of super teams built on superstar players. Popovich had his own plan – build a super team of players who all did certain things at a high level.
Through Popovich’s belief, and through leadership and execution, the Miami super-trio were unstuck by a super team. A new era of the NBA was born. An era that said you needed at least 10 players who can influence a match to be a title contender.
LeBron knows better than most how hard it is to come up against a super-team. He was left to try and fight that team almost single-handedly. In Game 5 of the most recent NBA Finals it appeared that LeBron had given up. Flinging the ball around the court to teammates was almost LeBron saying, where is my super-team when I need it. Definitely not in Cleveland with another three All Stars, LeBron.
History lesson number two for Dan Gilbert and LeBron James is something they can both relate to. When LeBron was last in Cleveland, Gilbert spent the best part of five seasons trying to surround James with veteran talent, which were meant to support the Cavaliers’ run to the NBA title.
Big names came, big names went, titles came close, but they never went to Cleveland. Despite the best efforts of trying to build a veteran team around James, it just didn’t work.
Now in his quest to appease James, Gilbert and whoever can claim to be the general manager at Cleveland are following the same mistakes of past years by stacking a veteran team around LeBron. Same plan, and history tells us that the same result of failure is about to come.
So, Cleveland is basically doing what Miami did in building a three-man super team and surrounding them with a bunch of veterans like Cleveland did when they first had LeBron. They are basically following two flawed strategies and hoping to get a different result.
Cleveland were in a perfect position to build a super team like San Antonio did. Actually, they could have built a better team than San Antonio and anyone else because of all the talented high-end draft picks on this team.
Instead, they have already moved bright young prospects Tyler Zeller and Sergey Karasev, both of whom are considered as outstanding bench role players as a worst case scenario. Throw in the fact that their last two number-one picks Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins are to be moved to Minnesota, and that Dion Waiters may be departing.
That is a starting five of talented young players that Cleveland have given up to get Love, simply to be a title threat this year. It seems to have been lost in the media swell around LeBron returning to Cleveland and the bright lights of another star trio of LeBron, Love and Kyrie Irving coming to town. They would have had a far better chance at a long term dynasty if they had stayed the course.
Love coming to Cleveland is being seen as the move that brings a title to Cleveland. If history has told us anything though, Love coming to Cleveland could be repeating a history that ends in disaster for the perennially unfortunate city of Cleveland.
Forget that other saying about God hates Cleveland. Maybe Cleveland hates Cleveland, how else can you explain two of its own in LeBron and Gilbert repeating a doomed history?
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