{"id":699826,"date":"2026-04-05T16:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/699826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:07:16","slug":"lebron-james-adds-cleveland-to-list-of-cities-he-doesnt-like-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/699826\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James adds Cleveland to list of cities he doesn\u2019t like playing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> star LeBron James made headlines for signaling out Memphis and Milwaukee as places he doesn\u2019t enjoy playing when he was on a golf YouTube video with Bob Does Sports<\/a>. Those comments \u2014 particularly saying he doesn\u2019t enjoy playing in Memphis \u2014 made people angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cA random f***** Tuesday in Milwaukee,\u201d James said on the YouTube video<\/a> when talking about life in the NBA. \u201cStaying at the f****** Hyatt at 41 years old. You think I want to do that shit? Being in Memphis on a f****** random ass Thursday? I\u2019m not like the first guy to even talk about it in the NBA. We\u2019re all like, \u2018You guys have to move. Go over to Nashville.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

James was asked to clarify those comments on Saturday. And in the process, he decided to do a drive-by on his hometown in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201c41 years old, it\u2019s two cities I do not like playing in right now,\u201d James said on Saturday<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s Milwaukee, and that\u2019s Memphis. What is the problem? I don\u2019t like going home either. Shit, and I\u2019m from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

James tried to clarify that he wasn\u2019t taking a shot at the city or their people when listing places he doesn\u2019t enjoy going to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not talking about the city, like the people in Memphis,\u201d James said. \u201cI don\u2019t like staying at the Hyatt Centric. What\u2019s wrong with that?\u201d<\/p>\n

How much you want to read into him saying he doesn\u2019t enjoy going home to Cleveland for games is up to you. In context, it seemed like he was saying he doesn\u2019t like going to the hotel and traveling there in the winter, as was the case this season when the Lakers made their lone trip to play the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. However, you could read it another way if you wanted to as well.<\/p>\n

What we do know is that James is in the last year of his current contract with Los Angeles. And while things have been working out well for him and the Lakers over the last month, it\u2019s clear that he isn\u2019t the focal point of the franchise anymore. He\u2019s adjusted to that well on the court, taking a tertiary role alongside both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Whether or not he wants that to continue to be his reality off the court remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s difficult to picture James playing anywhere but Cleveland and Los Angeles next season. We\u2019ll see how this all unfolds this summer. A lot can change between now and July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James made headlines for signaling out Memphis and Milwaukee as places he doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,13608,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6,3101],"class_list":{"0":"post-699826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavs-rumors","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-lakers","12":"tag-lakers","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116352964868120993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}