This time there was no smiling face. Just indifference.
A day after Miami Heat President Pat Riley appeared to call out former Heat forward LeBron James, in a reference that this offseason he would not have to deal with, “no more smiling faces with hidden agendas,” James said Tuesday during a group media session in Cleveland that it was news to him.
“I’m unaware,” James told assembled media at the Cleveland Cavaliers’ practice facility. “Whatever he said, really, for me, it’s not my concern now.”
That was followed by laughter, somewhat similar to Riley later in his media wrap-up session Monday trying to laugh off his comment, saying he “was at peace” with James’ July free-agency departure.
James continued, that his only concern was Tuesday’s Game 2 of his team’s opening-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics at Quicken Loans Arena.
“I have no notion of what transpired [Monday],” he said.
As he did in leading the Heat to the NBA Finals each of the previous four seasons, James said he has put himself in a social-media blackout, posting on Twitter on the eve of the playoffs, “Zero dark thirty-23 activated #StriveForGreatness.”
James explained the approach Tuesday morning to the assembled media.
“I don’t care about nonsense” he said. “There’s too much nonsense out there. Not during this time. I lock in right now. And I don’t need nothing creeping into my mind for no reason that doesn’t need to be there. I save all my energy and effort towards this team. That’s all that matters.”
It is a change from James’ initial approach when he joined the Heat as a free agent in the 2010 offseason, his public joking about the cold Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki was fighting in the 2011 NBA Finals becoming an issue as the Mavericks fought back from a deficit to win that series.
The Heat went on to win the 2012 and ’13 NBA championships, before falling in the NBA Finals last June to the San Antonio Spurs. Riley’s Monday comments came after the Heat failed to advance to the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.
In recent years, James had limited his media interactions to required interviews as part of the playoff process.
“It was hard early on,” James said. “I’ve been doing it for a few years now. It was very tough to just to be away from everything. It’s just a challenge. I love challenges. I don’t mind it.”
James said any outside controversies will be left to others during the postseason.
“I have no form of communication right now,” he said. “I don’t know what is going on out in the world right now, besides what people tell me.”
Left untold to James during his media session was Riley’s follow-up to a question about his “smiling faces” comment.
“That could be for anybody across the board,” Riley added later in his Monday media session at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I get agents, and I get players, I get parents, I get everybody that come across, we’ve already got about half-a-dozen emails from people I don’t even know, recommending, and somewhere in that email, in that text, is always a ‘smiley.’ They put it down there. So we all get that stuff.”
At the end of Riley’s Monday interview that went about 40 minutes, he was asked, “Have you reached a point where you’re at peace with the way LeBron left?”
Riley replied, “Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I am at peace with it.”
One component to the Heat-James relationship, however, remains in place.
As part of the Heat’s 2010 sign-and-trade agreement with the Cavaliers that allowed Riley to offer James an extra year on his Heat contract, the Heat still owe a top-10-protected first-round pick, even though James opted out of that fifth and final season on his Heat contract.
That pick since was dealt from the Cavaliers to the Minnesota Timberwolves and then to the Philadelphia 76ers, who will get the Heat’s first-round pick this June unless it is among the first 10 in the draft, which will be decided at the May 19 NBA draft lottery.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
