LeBron James reportedly 'shocked' by David Griffin's comments about Cavaliers

David Griffin, the former general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers (and current vice president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans) gave an in-depth interview to Sports Illustrated that was published on Thursday, which revealed that Griffin was “miserable” when he was heading up the LeBron James Cavs. He said that building a roster around James was difficult, and that James got no blame when things went wrong.

It was a brutally honest interview, and Griffin painted a pretty desolate portrait of managing a LeBron team. So does James have a response? Possibly. Sources close to James told ESPN that he was “shocked” by what Griffin said. And then there’s this tweet from late Thursday afternoon:

Is that about Griffin’s comments? It’s really hard to tell. He says that “ether” is “coming soon,” but who knows what that might be and who it might be aimed at. Maybe he’s talking about the NBA season. Or maybe James will give an on-the-record response to Griffin’s characterization of his time with the Cavs. But perhaps he’s waiting for Griffin to clear up some things first. From ESPN:

Griffin and a person close to James spoke to each other after the SI story was published, sources told ESPN, and Griffin expressed that some context was missing behind his comments. James' camp encouraged Griffin to clear up his stance on the record, sources said.

Figuring out how Griffin’s comments could be missing some context is an exercise I don’t recommend, but who knows? Maybe Griffin will actually attempt to clarify what he really meant when he told ESPN that he “wept in a broom closet” after the Cavs won the NBA championship, or that “LeBron is getting all the credit and none of the blame.”

LeBron James was reportedly "shocked" that David Griffin was so deeply unhappy during his time with the Cavaliers. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LeBron James was reportedly "shocked" that David Griffin was so deeply unhappy during his time with the Cavaliers. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Kendrick Perkins, who played with James in Cleveland, contributed his two cents to the conversation, tweeting in support of his former teammate.

Perkins makes a great point. Building a competitive roster around James, one of (if not the) greatest player in NBA history, is only difficult if the owner isn’t making the resources available. James could recruit all he wanted, but if ownership wasn’t willing to pay a competitive salary or trade players, that’s out of James’ hands.

Griffin is with the Pelicans now, which means he gets to build a roster around Zion Williamson. But he also has to deal with the Ball family, which could have him weeping in a broom closet in a whole new city.

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