Because Kenny Smith described Draymond Green with the pickup game analogy

LeBron James collided with the Warriors ten years ago on Wednesday.

Few would have imagined much when James, then 25 years old and already the best basketball player on the planet, told Jim Gray and spectators across the country that he would bring his talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat. James was, after all leaving one of the saddest franchises in NBA history, rejecting the Cleveland Knights to get in touch with close friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Do the Warriors, 35 years after their last NBA championship and one year after Klay Thompson’s writing, have anything to do with this?

But James’ departure from Cleveland planted the seeds for the return of the prodigal son four years later, and the boy from Akron’s titanic decision to leave put him on a path that would become inseparable from Golden State by the end of the 2010s. You can trace the roots of the rivalry between the Warriors’ conferences with the Cavs, as well as Kevin Durant’s decision to sign with Golden State, to “The Decision” a decade ago.

James and the Cavaliers were the Warriors’ biggest obstacles during their dynastic race, with the teams squading four times in a row in the NBA Finals. But he could never have stood in the way of Golden State if he had never left Cleveland.

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While James certainly could have done without the instant and visceral reaction from fans of his city, or the childish letter written in Comic Sans by Knights owner Dan Gilbert, he told Lee Jenkins – later with Sports Illustrated – that in 2014 he always had known at some point he would return to Cleveland.

“When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission,” said James at the time. “I was looking for championships and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling for a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, without a doubt. But the most important thing for me is to bring back a trophy in northeastern Ohio. “

Apparently the Cavaliers were also prepared for this possibility. Going to NBA-worst 97-215 in the absence of James helped Cleveland fill in the highest choice after the highest choice he would have played alongside James (Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson) or be used in operations to acquire other pieces ( Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins). If James stays in 2010, it is obvious that the Cavaliers will not participate in the lottery in the next four years. Former general manager David Griffin and the Cavs front office eventually built a contender around James, while Griffin’s Miami colleagues would have had a much more difficult time staying one.

Although James stayed with the Heat, President Pat Riley and CEO Andy Elisburg were out of choice in the first round thanks to the signs that brought James and Bosh to the Heat in the first place. A young talent was needed, in hindsight, when Wade grew up and Bosh eventually retired due to his blood clotting condition. Miami could not have provided it, and it is therefore difficult to imagine James as a nemesis of the Warriors while staying in South Beach.

James would still have been close to the height of his powers, but Heat would not have been a formidable challenge for the Warriors as James’ Cavaliers were in their first two final matches. A hypothetical Warriors-Heat final in 2015 is probably even more one-sided than the heat sweep by the lords of San Antonio Spurs a year earlier, and who can tell if Miami would have stayed on the Eastern Conference perch much longer than so.

Leaving Cleveland also indirectly ensured that the Cavaliers would not win more than one championship during James’ second period in Ohio. James’ decision also led to repercussions in the league’s front offices, ensuring the establishment of a more severe luxury tax. The Oklahoma City Thunder eventually justified James Harden’s trade because of the said luxury taxes, as Tim Bontemps noted while writing for the Washington Post in 2016, which certainly contributed to Kevin Durant’s eventual departure for the Warriors. James’ decision also showed superstars that they could control their fates, that the narratives were damned.

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If Heat’s Big 3 never forms, does the NBA’s next collective bargaining agreement also include a provision designed to prevent free agents from forming super-teams? If Thunder never breaks, do Warriors ever get past a team led by Durant, Harden and Russell Westbrook? If James stays in Cleveland, is a player of the likes of Durant willing to leave OKC in the first place?

When James uttered those infamous seven words 10 years ago, no one knew that he was tracing a path that inevitably intertwined with that of the Warriors. Had James’s ten-year decision gone differently, the Warriors’ recent past would have been beyond doubt beyond recognition.