Breathe easily, and freely, Cleveland Cavaliers fans.
LeBron James will be in uniform when his team opens up the 2015-16 regular season next Tuesday in a road tilt against the Chicago Bulls.
If you didn’t know his status was maybe, quite possibly in doubt, well, where the hell have you been? According to the Akron Beacon Journal‘s Jason Lloyd, LeBron received an injection in his back, believed to be an anti-inflammatory shot, essentially ending his preseason.
It should be noted that these kinds of things are relatively routine. They’re just seldom talked about.
It should also be noted that this is LeBron freaking James, and anything pertaining to him that’s even remotely unsavory, however minor or negligible or precautionary, figures to incite some level of unrest. That’s true now more than ever, with LeBron on the wrong side of 30, sporting north of 43,000 regular-season and playoff minutes on his treads.
This time, though, the injection really doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about. Although LeBron James is probably out for the remainder of the preseason, Cavs coach Davis Blatt fully expects him to suit up for opening night, per Rick Noland of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram:
Blatt on LJ: "I would say he will absolutely be ready for the season opener"
— Rick Noland MG/CT (@RickNoland) October 19, 2015
Phew.
Playing without LeBron James is never ideal, even for a team like Cleveland that has other big names lining its roster, but his absence would have been particularly ill-timed now. The Cavaliers already know they won’t have Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert at their disposal, and Kevin Love only just returned to unconditional action following shoulder surgery. It also looks like the team will be without Tristan Thompson to start the season. He and the Cavaliers remain at a contractual impasse, with the forward demanding a max contract, and the Cavaliers offering substantially less.
That makes having LeBron James on the floor to start the year paramount, otherwise the Cavaliers could once again start slow, falling victim to headlines and rumors and general unpleasantness. They’ll still have their work cut out for them in the meantime as they wait for Irving to return and for the Thompson debacle to reach a resolution, but it would have been unfathomably worse if LeBron missed any time.
Alas, that shouldn’t be an issue. All the Cavaliers have to do now is hope LeBron James meets his usual sky-high expectations from the jump, and they’ll be inoculated against one negatively manufactured storyline as they look to defend their Eastern Conference crown.
