Lakers’ LeBron James looks back on Cavaliers days – ‘It was special’

CLEVELAND — The name of the arena may have changed, the locker room where he wears his jersey may have been across the hall and his signature headband look may have been replaced by a now easily recognizable gray beard, but LeBron James is Play basketball and win in Cleveland on Saturday night.

same as before.

The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the host Cavaliers 121-115, reaching a season record of 10 wins and 7 losses.

While it wasn’t a classic James performance — 22 points on 8-for-23 shooting, including 1-for-9 from 3 — he sealed the victory with a layup and a dunk that sealed the win for Los Angeles with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter. The team’s lead expanded from one to five.

Just as James keeps returning to his old teams, the 21-year NBA veteran continues to achieve great things throughout his career. In fact, his charitable foundation opened a museum on Saturday morning in his hometown of Akron, Ohio — home of LeBron James — to document all the feats he continues to accomplish.

“To be able to come back after 11 years here after being in Miami and win a championship for this team, this city, I think the city of Cleveland has been through a 52-year (championship) drought or something like that. For anyone A sports team, I think no matter how old I get, it’s something I’ll never forget,” James said. “I will always remember that moment.”

The Cavaliers did their part by treating James as an old friend rather than an opponent that night. When James was announced to the starting lineup, Cleveland’s mascot Moon Dog approached the Lakers and gave James a fist-pumping salute. During a timeout in the first quarter, the video board played a lengthy tribute to James’ move to the top of the NBA’s all-time scoring list, with many in the crowd of 19,432 standing to cheer the 38-year-old star. Completed.

“It’s always a really cool feeling to come back to this floor and look up and be away from almost all the banners in this arena,” James said. “The first flag, the one in the middle, is the ’16 championship , so that’s pretty cool.”

It has been seven years since James led the Cavaliers to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship for the first time in NBA Finals history. Cleveland defeated the Golden State Warriors, who had a record-breaking 73-9 regular season record, and Stephen Curry became the first unanimous MVP in league history.

James barely slowed down. He shot a career-high 57.8 percent from the field that night and continued to play significant minutes as Los Angeles dealt with an early-season injury. As he admitted on Saturday, “We built this roster for ourselves and (Anthony Davis) to not have a huge burden” as James looks to do whatever he can to keep this team moving in the right direction .

The Lakers’ effort against the Cavaliers proved that they might be able to sustain this success if James takes his foot off the gas and conserves some energy for the next playoff game. The Lakers made 34 assists on 47 field goals on Saturday, and Davis led Los Angeles’ seven double-digit scorers with a season-high 32 points.

But the Lakers still have 65 games to figure it all out. They only go to Cleveland once a season, which means there may only be a few games left in James’ career stomping ground — unless he hangs up the Lakers-Cavs game before the Finals.

“It’s special,” James said. “As a kid from Akron, it’s very special. I grew up 30 miles south of here, to be able to get drafted here, spend my first seven years here and do some ball Something special that the team has never seen. When I was drafted, I said I wanted to light up this place like Vegas. So I feel like I’ve done a good job at that in my 11 years here.”

His 11 years with the Cavaliers and the rest of James’ journey will be commemorated in his new museum. General admission is $23, with proceeds funding training programs for students, parents and educators as part of his I Promise School near Akron. The museum displays artifacts from his upbringing, including the oversized white suit he wore on draft night and the sneakers he wore in some of his biggest games. The exhibition was curated by his mother, Gloria James.

“Ever since I first started playing sports, I used to get angry at my mom for trying to save everything,” James said. “She threw it back in my face… because a lot of (the items) in there were Because of what she saved. That’s cool.”

His mom will have more stat sheets to file, more game balls to file before he calls it quits, and more clutch goals like when he beat the Cavaliers on Saturday night. Scored like that.

But for a man who has lived by his personal motto of “pursue greatness” for the past two decades, James at least gave himself a night to stop and reflect.

“I think it’s pretty cool that I’m able to do something in my life that brings back my community and continues to highlight my community and give my community a place that people want to visit and want to see and learn about. I Want to be proud of it,” James said. “I am. I’m proud that my foundation is able to do some great things, and this is just one of the things that we can all be proud of in my hometown.”