Unlike his first time becoming an NBA free agent, there was a strong sentiment LeBron James was likely to move on from the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second time in his career. Though, James was thought to be deciding between the Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers.
Those wound up being the only teams James met with at the outset of free agency, and he of course made a quick decision to sign with the Lakers. Not only did James make the jump to a loaded Western Conference, he did so on a four-year contract.
Rather than use the moment to bash him, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert penned an appreciative goodbye letter to James. While the Cavaliers will forever remain linked to James, the franchise in some part is attempting to begin a fresh start.
The team redesigned their locker room at Quicken Loans Arena, and though it’s not a direct translation or conversion, the area of James’ old locker is now used for towels, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon explained:
For those wondering, there is no “who has LeBron’s locker’ in the new Cavs’ room. Totally revamped pic.twitter.com/pcX4AnPOfT
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) October 6, 2018
Technically, the LeBron spot is now a towel closet pic.twitter.com/JwOOuBO3Hc
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) October 6, 2018
Hey, everyone, from @BleacherReport on down, let's take it easy on the LeBron locker stuff. As I said, it's an entirely new locker room with a totally new design.
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) October 6, 2018
Any suggestions that the Cavs intentionally turned LeBron's locker into a towel closet is untrue. No one's locker remained from the old format @BleacherReport. In the old design, LeBron's locker was in that corner, but there weren't a row of lockers down the side
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) October 6, 2018
The Lakers coincidentally also renovated their locker room at Staples Center for this season. The changes include James taking the locker space that once belonged to Kobe Bryant and was first passed on to Brandon Ingram.
The young forward is now shifted over to the right, along the same wall as his old locker and now James’ space.
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