"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER 'KING' WINS ONE".
That is a line from an open letter published by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert after the franchise's former superstar LeBron James announced his decision to leave his home state team in 2010.
The open letter also contained words such as "cowardly" and betrayal". Yet four years on, James is back with Cleveland and in the intervening period, picked up two NBA titles with the Miami Heat.
But why has he returned to the franchise which he left in such acrimonious circumstances?
"I think the chance to go home and probably finish his career there and certainly have a good shot [at NBA titles] depending on what they build around him in Cleveland. That's great and that's legacy stuff," Ryan Jones of Slam Magazine told us tonight.
"LeBron is a very savvy guy and he's got some very ambitious, savvy people around him who are thinking long-term, big picture, big money. So you've got to wonder if there's an ownership stake there in his future. You can't write that into a player's contract in the NBA but you've got to wonder if that's part of it. There's whispers about that sort of thing going around."
Cleveland fans have been quick to welcome him back despite the vociferousness of the reaction after he left and Jones was not surprised that James felt the need to return home before the end of his career.
Jones believes the 30-year-old has another five years of elite level form in him, with the cerebral edge to take him up to the edge of 40. Plus there is the tantalizing prospect of trying to attain a first ever NBA Championship for the Cavs.
