LeBron James Wasn’t Always Respected By Cleveland Cavaliers Teammates

Or should I say in the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room?

Yeah, let’s go with that.

Per Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida, James was often chided (resented?) by his teammates upon coming into the league:

Silas wouldn’t give any names. But he said that not long after James showed up in Cleveland, there were teammates who were critical of James when the 18-year-old could hear them.

“We had a few guys that would test him,” Silas said. “They would say, ‘What has he done to warrant all this hype?’ They would say it where he could hear them. There were some problems.

“LeBron got down a few times about it. Sometimes he would just be sitting there and not get up right away for shooting (during a practice). I’d come over and tell him, ‘You have to just forget about that. You can’t worry about that. You’re a professional.’ But (the comments from his teammates) all went away when he started putting up numbers.”

Now, Silas doesn’t get into specifics, but LeBron played alongside a lot of veterans during his first season Cleveland (and beyond), so it could be any number of them.

It seems crazy, though, right? How could they disrespect the second-coming of Michael Jordan? Someone, who is now, arguably even better?

To be fair, all rookies are hazed (I’d imagine), but few ever enter the league with as much hype as James did. Imagine being in the league for a few years and suddenly taking a backseat to an 18-year-old. That likely won’t feel too good.

Also understand that there are probably plenty of NBA players who don’t follow high school basketball. Had James played at the collegiate level, where he would have received even more national attention, perhaps his former teammates would have known what they were dealing with. Maybe they would have understood they were in the presence of future greatness.

But they didn’t. At least not all of them. They gave him a tough time and, as Silas said, caused some problems.

Of course, LeBron’s 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game likely shut everyone up over the course of the year. He didn’t lead the Cavaliers back to the playoffs immediately, but he did put up gaudy numbers at age 18. Surely by his 19th birthday, his teammates knew that he warranted the hype.

Even so, it borders on inconceivable at the moment to envision James an underdog. Nearly a decade into his NBA career, clad with a title and countless broken records, picturing LeBron as an outcast in his own locker room seems impossible.

Apparently, though, not even an 18-year-old James is beyond reproach.