Last week, New Orleans Pelicans Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin raised some eyebrows as he spoke about his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In particular, he shocked many by saying that he did not believe that LeBron James had the same desire to win championships after winning a title with his hometown Cavaliers.
James seemed to fire back with some cryptic social media posts and Griffin had to speak to members of his camp in order to assure them that his words were taken out of context.
On Friday, he appeared on ESPN’s The Jump to further clarify his comments publicly, stating that what he meant was that he had an “unfounded fear” that James would lose his motivation after winning that championship.
As far as LeBron James not being the same "hungry animal" after the Cleveland Cavaliers won the championship in 2016, David Griffin points to an unfounded fear he had at the time. pic.twitter.com/DCVPqcUYWo
— Oleh Kosel (@OlehKosel) August 2, 2019
At this point, Griffin just has to hash this out with LeBron. The two have had a great relationship over the years so it’s not surprising that James would feel betrayed by Griffin’s comments even if they were taken out of context as he claims.
Even if LeBron believes Griffin and forgives him, however, all this talk about his level of competitiveness can really only fuel his fire heading into the next season. With title aspirations being the theme of the year for the Lakers, they’ll take any motivation they can get to reach number 17.
