NBA Special Report: Miami Heat keep Cleveland tour plans secret
"I’m anxious to see him do the powder [expletive],” Shaquille O’Neal told reporters before the Boston Celtics’ 106-87 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday.
"We have bets he won’t do it."
If LeBron James, with a hostile reception looming on Thursday night’s homecoming at Cleveland, decides against performing his powder-tossing ritual, he won’t be the only one to change his pregame rituals.
It was learnt Wednesday night that Miami Heat have also changed their minds, deciding not to release the itinerary for the team’s visit to Cleveland.
Under normal circumstances, the Heat usually release the team’s travel schedule, hotel location and pre game conditioning routine to selected media outlets in order to facilitate their coverage of home and away encounters.
This time though, citing special circumstances, the Heat have decided against revealing any information prior to the match to ensure that James and his Miami team mates don’t face any inconvenience. The same was confirmed by a team spokesman.
All these surmount to the additional security steps being taken by the League and Heats to avoid any awkward backlash over the abrupt and shocking departure of James departure from Cleveland.
The self proclaimed King used to be the toast of Cleveland before he decided to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.
“Taking my talents to South Beach” said James on the night of July 8, a decision that brought him much criticism and sent some Cleveland fans to the streets to burn James' jersey and shoes.
James himself appears to be in a big dilemma over what to expect, come Thursday night but he is trying his best to downplay the situation.
"It's one game, everyone is making a huge deal," James said. "But I'm very respectful to those fans that I have. So we'll see what happens."
At the back of his mind though, he knows that he is in for a rowdy response right from the time he enters the court to the point he leaves back on the bus.
"I think it's going to be tough," James said. "But I'm there to win a basketball game, and I understand how passionate fans are about sports. So I'm ready for whatever response I'm going to get."
Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert, who added fuel to the fire by releasing emotional statement against James after he left, has assured that no untoward incident will take place at the Quicken Loans Arena. At the same time he has resorted to dirty tactics as
it was learnt that he has hired a law firm to investigate the circumstances that led to James making a deal with the Miami Heat this summer.
With James already in a fix, the timing of this move couldn’t have been worse for him and his franchise.
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