LeBron James Says Speculation He’ll Leave Cleveland Is “Outlandish”

That didn’t take long. Recent reports said LeBron James “won’t hesitate” to leave Cleveland if it was in his best business interests. The audio of his chat with Dwyane Wade after their Christmas Day game appeared to support the idea LeBron would be willing to leave Cleveland again, but James called the whole thing “outlandish,” and reiterated his stance he’s in Cleveland for the long haul.

Before Cleveland dropped another game — this time a 96-80 loss to the Bucks without James, who missed his second straight game with a sore left knee — James was pretty clear about his intentions of staying with Cleveland.

“I’m here to build, build something great in the present and the future, and that’s the reason I’m back,” James said, by way of Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

“I’ve got no other reason to have to continue to talk about things that’s so outlandish. So, I’m here, this is where I’ll be, and this is where I’m comfortable,” James continued.

The now infamous audio of the NBA video, had many national writers surmising James and Wade were talking about getting together off the court.

@royceyoung they've both been cryptic but made it sound like it was post-career. Of course, they could be screwing with me.

— Ethan J. Skolnick, 5 Reasons Sports (@EthanJSkolnick) December 31, 2014

James said as much before last night’s game, too, per Vardon:

“I’ve seen the clip just like you’ve seen the clip. I don’t know exactly what I said at the beginning, either,” James said. “I know I said, ‘We’ll get back together and do some bigger and better things,’ but it had nothing to do about basketball.

“I mean, if was going to tell him that, I’d tell him the night before,” James said. “Come on, guys. I’m not stupid. I know I didn’t go to college but I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t say that on Christmas with a hundred cameras around. I would have told him the night before at his house.”

That makes so much more sense. James isn’t dumb; he wouldn’t talk about something so touchy in front of millions of television viewers and multiple cameras and microphones. As LeBron said, he was at Wade’s house the night before.

Let’s all hope this is behind us. If someone tries using the X-Mas day audio as evidence James has always planned on re-teaming with Wade on the court and leaving Cleveland, it’s an immediate sign they have no idea what they’re talking about.