Let's flashback to July 10th, 2010. Two days after The Decision and one day after The Celebration, when LeBron was officially sent to the Miami Heat via one of the biggest sign-and-trade deals in NBA history.
MIAMI GOT:
- LeBron James, who signed a 6-year, $110 million contract (same as Chris Bosh and $2.6M more than Dwyane Wade's discounted deal).
CLEVELAND GOT:
- Two first-round picks, that must be used starting in 2013 (Nemanja Nedovic was later selected) and ending by 2017
- 2012 second-round pick Miami received from New Orleans (Jae Crowder was later selected)
- Future second-round pick Heat acquired from Oklahoma City
- Cleveland can also swap first round picks with the Heat in 2012 (didn't do it)
- A trade exception($16M) that the Cavs must use in trades for one calendar year.
Most Cleveland fans were as angry as Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, but Cavs GM Chris Grant sounded very optimistic about the team's future after the trade.
"This deal provides us with multiple key assets and additional flexibility as we move forward for both the short term and beyond"
"LeBron is no longer on our team and we're ready to move forward. We're not going to change our thinking -- we want to win. If you look at the decisions we've made, they're all based on winning. We have players who are used to winning and we plan to continue to do so."
Well, the Cavs didn't do much winning at first, unless you count winning the lottery: On May 20th of 2014, despite only have a 1.7% chance, the Cavs won the first pick of the lottery (later to be used on Andrew Wiggins) for the 2nd year in a row (after picking Anthony "Bust" Bennett) and for the third time since 2011 (when they picked up All-Star Kyrie Irving). During this time of piling up #1 picks in Cleveland, LeBron took his South Beach crew to the NBA Finals four straight years and won two NBA championships.
Then in July of 2014, LeBron made the decision to come back home to the Cavs and was able to take them to the 2015 NBA Finals, which made the people in the following video feel a little better than they did back on July 8th of 2010.
THE DECISION
KANYE WAS ALSO AT THE DECISION
Also present at the infamous event was a pre-Kardashian Kanye West!
According to former ESPN employee Courtney Cox, she had a fear of West pulling a MTV Awards moment like he did with Taylor Swift so she placed him a few rows back. He ended up falling asleep during the event and left before LeBron announced he was taking his talents to South Beach.
I spend the first 15 minutes or so honed in on ‘Ye’s every move. He seems chill, he’s wearing his glasses indoors, and he’s not making sudden moves. I forget he’s there until one of the camera operators says, “I think Kanye West fell asleep.”
THE WELCOME PARTY CELEBRATION
