Return of the King

Brian Windhorst has always been the acknowledged LeBron James Whisper. Having attended high school with LBJ, and then covering him with the Akron Beacon Journal, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and now ESPN, Windhorst arguably has seen more games of LBJ in person than anybody else. Even LBJ tells people that Brian is the person who remembers everything about his past and can chronicle it for them.

Dave McMenamin brings a different element than Windhorst, a fresh set of eyes to the whole LBJ experience. McMenamin also writes with more emphasis upon the x and o’s of basketball.

Put these two top-tier NBA writers together with unfiltered access to GM David Griffin, Coach Ty Lue, agent Rich Paul and LBJ himself and you have the best insiders account of a NBA team since David Halberstam’s late 70’s classic on the Portland Trailblazers, The Breaks of the Game.

The books opens with a detailed look at the month preceding LBJ’s return to Cleveland. So unexpected is it that Dan Gilbert and the Cavs have no problem with leasing out Quicken Loans Arena for the Republican National Convention in 2016 because they do not plan on being in the playoffs (which is why Mark Cuban said “no” when asked about the American Airlines Center in Dallas). LeBron doesn’t even tell D Wade after he had made his decision. The only person who was given the heads-up that something might be cooking was SI’s Lee Jenkins.

The book is a star making turn for David Griffin. He trusts his instincts at all times, navigating the middle road between LBJ and owner Dan Gilbert, but agreeing over time with LBJ’ s quick accessment (although unspoken) that David Blatt was not the right man for the coaching job.

LBJ is driven perfectionist who can be passive-aggressive when sending texts or glances to teammates. LBJ models Michael Jordan. Kyrie models Kobe. Kevin Love is caught between alpha dog expectations and being the third option on the team.

In the end, the entire team bonds together with bit players such as Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson playing major parts in keeping everybody loose. The Block, the Shot and the Stop are explained in detail. The book ends with the King fulfilling his promise to the Land.

I enjoy Brian Windhorst very much, and while I am less familiar with Dave McMenamin I have enjoyed the work I have come across. I am also a LeBron James fan, though not what I would consider a “superfan”.

I (sports) loathe GSW and especially Steph Curry, so I was excited to read about the Cav’s Comeback / Warriors Failure. Unfortunately, this book is almost entirely about LeBron’s return to Cleveland and the machinations leading up to it. The story of the 3-1 comeback in the Finals is almost an afterthought and actually occupies a relatively small portion of the book. In fairness, the title is “Return of the King” so it’s a fair expectation that the bulk of the book is going to be about that return.

Even accounting for the fact that the book is the story of the Return and not really the Comeback, I didn’t find it to be particularly enlightening on the topic of the Return. If you have been reading Windhorst over the years, then I would imagine that there isn’t much in this book that I would consider to be “new news” – it felt like a nice compilation of things I was already privy to. Aside from not having enough about the Comeback, I was disappointed that it didn’t really shine any new light on the Return for me either.

That said, the book is OK, and if you have not been keeping up with Windhorst’s work over the past couple years then I would expect there will be more “meat on the bone” for you in this book. I was borderline on giving it 2 stars, but I didn’t think that was fair, given that the content of the book is good and would have been more intriguing had I not already read so much Windhorst. But given that I was fairly letdown by some things, I have to stick to 3 stars.

A great read that’s full of interesting information that wasn’t available to the general public. Brian and Dave fill in the missing pieces that weren’t reported or even known by them until they pried it out of the players, coaches, and executives of the Cavs after they won the championship. Brilliant investigative work done when everyone involved with the Cavs were basking in the glow of being the hometown heroes and had let their guard down. Real fans of the Cavs probably know about 50 percent of the information in the book, but having it put in chronological order and, as I already said, filling in the holes with missing information, makes it must reading.

Very thorough and detailed book. I just wish their were more “behind the scenes” stories. This was more so a week by week game recap covering two seasons. If you’re a Cavs fan and you follow the beat writers, most of the information is a repeat of what you’ve already heard/read. Aside from more detail into LBJ’s resigning with the Cavs, not much new information is uncovered in this book. The authors did a great job, but I would recommend this book more for those people not already following the team on a daily basis .

Nice detail on the build up to the finals. Good coverage of trade deals, locker room and personal relationships through the seasons. And interesting insight into LeBron’s use of social media to get his point across.

Well worth a read.

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