LeBron James apparently grew up hating Cleveland, yet he hasn't ruled out a return to the city at some point in his career.
That is, if the fans would embrace him — an unlikely scenario given his most recent round of comments.
While all of northeast Ohio has claimed to be James' home, he only feels a particular attachment to Akron, he told GQ Magazine.
"It's not far, but it is far," James said of Cleveland. "And Clevelanders, because they were the bigger-city kids when we were growing up, looked down on us … So we didn't actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There's a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day."
Even so, James would return to Cleveland some day, but likely not if Dan Gilbert was still in charge.
"I don't think he ever cared about LeBron," he said. "My mother always told me 'You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You'll get a good sense of their character.' Me and my family have seen the character of that man."
Still, James continued his assault on Cleveland, standing by his statement that his fans there were "spoiled."
In a moment almost as self-aware as The Decision, James clarified that statement.
"But I mean, even my family gets spoiled at times watching me doing things that I do, on and off the court," said James.
It is almost unimaginable that James appeared to be a "humble" superstar for the first five years of his career when he has taken a dramatic shift to the contrary.
With every new statement he makes, he digs himself into a deeper hole.
