David Griffin and LeBron James spent three successful seasons together with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but despite the championship that they won, it is not a time that Griffin remembers particularly fondly. He told Jake Fischer of Sports Illustrated that he "was miserable" during his tenure running the Cavaliers, and that he knew he was going to leave the team "literally the moment we won the championship."
The issue, as Griffin described it, boiled down to the impact James had on the franchise. He called everything the team did in hastily constructing a roster around James "inorganic and unsustainable and, frankly, not fun." In the traditional sense of building a roster, Griffin had a point. The Cavaliers missed the playoffs the year before James arrived. They were expected to win the championship the moment that he signed rather than following the more traditional path of developing over several years.
They eventually won that championship, but Griffin questioned James' dedication after that. "I don't think he's the same animal anymore about winning," Griffin told Sports Illustrated. James reportedly took umbrage with that notion. Sources close to James told ESPN that they were shocked by Griffin's words, and the superstar himself tweeted the following message just hours after the story was released.
Alright alright. Enough is enough. The throne has been played with to much and I ain’t for horseplay. Ether coming soon!
