After going down 116-102 away from home against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, LeBron James made sure to give his respect to the franchise he called home for 11 seasons.
James was drafted by the Cavaliers as the first overall selection in 2003, carrying them to the NBA Finals in 2007, and then winning two league MVPs in 2009 and 2010 before taking his talents to South Beach.
He returned ahead of the 2014-15 season, taking the Cavaliers to four more NBA Finals appearances, highlighted by the franchise's only championship in 2016 when they came back from a 3-1 deficit against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors.
James has played against the Cavaliers multiple times since joining the Lakers, but he admitted that the video package his former team played during a timeout in Tuesday's game caught him by surprise.
"A little bit," he said "It's always love coming back here.
"Obviously, the memories I have here will never be forgotten, from the time I was drafted here as an 18-year-old kid, to the time I left, so the reception I got from the fans here, it's mutual for sure."
He added: "That's what Cleveland sports is all about. From the Guardians, to the Browns, to the Cavs – the fans are always going to support and be loud. I wouldn't expect anything less."
When asked if he has been impressed with the Cavaliers since they acquired All-Star Donovan Mitchell through an offseason trade with the Utah Jazz, James said he has been paying close attention for longer than that.
"They were competitive before Donovan got here, but I thought them adding him made them more dynamic," he said. "If you watched them last year, you saw how competitive they were then as well.
"When some of their guys got injured towards the end of the season they slipped a bit and ended up in the play-in game, but they were a good team last year.
"You add an All-Star, a dynamic guard like Donovan, it's automatically going to make a team better."
Mitchell played like a superstar against the Lakers, scoring a game-high 43 points on 17-of-27 shooting, while adding six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
"I mean Mitchell is Mitchell," James said. "He did a great job of penetrating our gaps, making some tough shots all night, and getting into a real good comfort zone. He's a really special kid."
Mitchell also had kind words for James, reflecting on his position now as a leader of the Cavaliers after watching the franchise on television growing up.
"It's crazy – I grew up watching him here," he said. "It really hit for me, that full-circle moment, when I watched him get that standing ovation and they played his intro.
"I just sat there on the stanchion and watched the reception he got – it's incredible. It's well-deserved, he's one of the greatest players of all-time.
"He brought a championship – the only championship – to this franchise. You've got to have admiration for that, and hopefully we can do something similar."
He went on to talk about how he will always view James as a Cavalier.
"There was a level of excellence he brought to the city, the way he's revered as an athlete," he said.
"I think the first initial thought is the Cleveland Cavaliers when you think LeBron – that's no disrespect to the Lakers or the Heat – but when you think of 'Bron, you think of Cleveland.
"He set that precedent. When you look at what he's done here in his career, in two different stints. To be the only team to come back from 3-1, leading that group.
"It's really cool, to be honest with you, to be in a situation where as a kid you're literally watching the games in front of a TV, and now I'm part of it."
The Cavaliers are built to last, and there has always been rumblings that James would end up finishing his career where it began.
But after signing a two-year extension with the Lakers in September, he is tied to Los Angeles until at least the end of the 2023-24 season, when he can exercise his player option and opt out, becoming a free agent once again.
When also taking into account the Cavaliers currently have four players who will be earning max-contracts – Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley – the reality is one would have to make way to accommodate any potential return of the 'King'.
Kerr demands improvements from Team USA as Olympic opener looms
United States coach Steve Kerr wants to see higher levels of intensity from his team as their Olympics campaign approaches.
Kerr was unhappy with the lacklustre displays from his side in their warm-ups against Germany and South Sudan.
Germany led 71-68 at the end of the third quarter before LeBron James conjured up 11 points in the final four minutes to give the USA a 92-88 win, while South Sudan were 20 seconds away from pulling off one of the biggest shocks in basketball history, before eventually falling to a 101-100 loss.
The USA face a dangerous Serbia side featuring reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic on Sunday, and Kerr is adamant that improvements are required if they are to win a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
He said: "It's got to be 40 minutes of force and attention and focus, and we can't let teams outplay us effort and energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.
“We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it's a collaboration, always.
"We can show them, 'Let's do this, let's do that. Let's learn personnel.'
"We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that's where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different."
Kerr is a four-time NBA champion as a coach, and was part of the triumphant Olympics team in Tokyo in 2021, but the Golden State Warriors boss knows the experience of the Games will only be enhanced if the USA were to come out on top again.
"This should be one of the great experiences of our lives. But the best way to make it an incredible experience is to win a gold medal," he said.
After facing Serbia, the USA will once again go up against South Sudan, this time in a competitive format, before ending the group stage with a match against Puerto Rico.
Durant warns Team USA 'everybody is a contender' in Olympic basketball tournament
Kevin Durant has warned Team USA they will not have an easy ride through the basketball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games, declaring: "Everybody is a contender".
The United States will go in search of a fifth straight men's basketball gold in the French capital, where they open their Group C campaign against Serbia on Sunday.
After that meeting with Nikola Jokic and company, the star-studded USA team featuring Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and a host of other NBA stars take on South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
With Steve Kerr having so much talent at his disposal, the roster has been compared to that of the 1992 'Dream Team', who took gold in Barcelona behind the efforts of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and other great names.
However, at a press conference ahead of Team USA's 2024 opener, Curry reminded reporters that the class of 1992 only faced nine other active NBA players.
Durant is expecting a much tougher assignment this year, responding to Curry by saying: "Everybody is a contender. Everyone is here for a reason.
"We're playing against 65 or 64 NBA players in Paris. So you know they're the best in the world."
Asked to identify the main players to watch from other nations, the Phoenix Suns forward said: "Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or Jokic."
While Durant adopted a cautious tone, Golden State Warriors star Curry was more bullish regarding the USA's gold medal hopes.
Quizzed on who he was most excited about facing, Curry simply said: "Whoever's in the gold medal game."
Knicks, head coach Thibodeau agree to three-year contract extension
The New York Knicks and head coach Tom Thibodeau have agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season.
New York went 50-32 last season to earn the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Indiana Pacers in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
The Knicks were also ousted in the East semis in 2022-23 and reached the play-offs during Thibodeau’s first season in 2021-22, when he won his second NBA Coach of the Year award.
Prior to 2021-22, New York’s previous post-season appearance came in 2013.
The Knicks have gone 175-143 over the last four seasons under Thibodeau, who earned his first NBA Coach of the Year award in 2011 as a rookie head coach with the Chicago Bulls.
The 66-year-old Thibodeau owns a 527-389 record in 12 seasons as a head coach with Chicago, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York.
His teams have gone 38-47 in the post-season, and Thibodeau’s only appearance in the conference finals came in his rookie head coach season.
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