CLEVELAND (AP)—The hype and the hate just aren’t the same.
LeBron James(notes) will make his second trip to Cleveland as a visiting player on
Tuesday night and he doesn’t expect it to be nearly as intense as his return on
Dec. 2, when Cavaliers fans unloaded months of built-up frustration on the
superstar, who bolted as a free agent last summer.
James said his upcoming visit “can’t get no worse than it was Dec. 2. I
know that for a fact.”
Cleveland fans aren’t frothing like they were three months ago. Maybe that’s
because the Cavaliers have fallen on hard times, a slide that accelerated after
James returned and helped the Heat embarrass Cleveland 118-90. Coach Byron Scott
contends the loss didn’t have a negative affect on his team, but the Cavaliers
lost a record 26 straight games shortly after James’ homecoming.
