LeBron James Once Spent Over $10,000 Just to Motivate His Cavaliers Team but Ended Up Losing

Published 11/16/2022, 12:10 PM EST

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were minutes away from stealing game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals. But then Kyrie Irving suffered an injury and the Warriors held on to the lead to seal the victory. After the game, LeBron spent over $10,000 to just motivate his team after the loss. Despite this, the Cavs ended up losing the series in six games.

In 2015, LeBron led his Cavs team to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2007. This was LeBron’s fifth straight and sixth overall Finals appearance. But for a vast majority of his teammates, it was their first one. After the game 1 loss, LeBron wanted to regroup his team and rally his teammates, especially after they had learned that Kyrie Irving had suffered a season-ending injury.

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LeBron James’ efforts to motivate his teammates failed

After game 1, LeBron invited all his teammates to the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco for an informal team meeting. He talked about the challenges that they were going to face as a team during the series. The veteran guard spoke from his experience and asked them to be prepared for the adversity that they are about to face. The King asked his teammates to stick together, regardless of what happened.

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The Cavs were also in for a surprise. After the meeting, LeBron James got his entire team brand new Apple watches in order to show them his appreciation for the efforts they had put in. This must have cost the King over $10,000. However, that’s not a lot for someone with James’ net worth.

He later on addressed the incident, saying, “I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great partners and whatever I get, I like to share with my teammates. It’s just my way of showing them that I care. That’s it. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time.”

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At the same time, the team talked about their family, the news, and other sundry stuff. In fact, they wanted to ease the tension of being in the NBA Finals. J.R.Smith, a member of the Cavs, said, “He brought us out, and we talked about regular, everyday stuff instead of just the Finals.”

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Despite this and the Cavs best efforts, they ended up losing to the Warriors in six games. They fought very hard, but they were ultimately over-matched by the Warriors’ talent and dominance on-court. But the Cavs redeemed themselves the next year by going back to the Finals and winning the 2016 NBA title.

So it is safe to say LeBron’s 10 grand didn’t entirely go to waste.

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Written by:

Vishwesha Kumar is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. Holder of a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, Vishwesha has been writing content for about 3 years now. He has been following the NBA for nearly 10 years, since first starting off in the year 2012.

Edited by:

Satagni Sikder

LeBron James Once Spent Over $10,000 Just to Motivate His Cavaliers Team but Ended Up Losing

LeBron James’ efforts to motivate his teammates failed

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