LeBron James’ plan to play all 82 games?
Not happening.
Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:the Cavs remain diligent in their monitoring and concern over James’ health, to the point of plotting areas on the schedule where they could rest him, a team source told Cleveland.com.
There are no set-in-stone plans to sit James yet, but the reality is that he will not reach the goal he laid out last week of playing in all 82 regular-season games.
This is no real surprise. LeBron has never played all 82 games in a season. He was suddenly going to do it at age 30/31 while dealing with back problems?
The Cavaliers are trying to win a championship. LeBron wearing himself down over the regular season runs counter to that goal.
LeBron said he didn’t want to sit unless he was injured, because he owed playing to his fans. With that stance made clear, LeBron can be the good guy and allow the Cavs to play bad guy and overrule him. If LeBron truly wanted to play, I bet he had the power to make that happen.