Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James initially said that he was not going to comment about Tristan Thompson's dispute with the team. Over the weekend, however, the NBA star finally weighed in on the situation and mentioned that both sides should agree on a mutual deal soon.
James and Thompson met at a wedding on Saturday, where the former took a photo (pictured above) and posted it on his Instagram account. The event, where the pair's agent Rich Paul is also present, is believed to be where James apparently changed his mind about letting the media know his stance about the issue. He captioned the said image with "Get it done!!!! Straight up. #MissMyBrother."
One day after the two players met, James called Thompson's situation with a Cavs a "distraction" and urged the team and the player to come up with an agreement if they want to reach their goal of winning the championship.
"I'm not here to talk about numbers, things of that nature, because that's for them, for both sides to figure out. The last thing you need is a distraction when you try to make a championship run. And we have that right now. And it's unfortunate for both sides that we're going through it right now as a team. It's not an excuse, we will be ready to go but hopefully something happens in the near future," James told ESPN after practice at the Cavs' facility in Independence, Ohio.
The 24-year-old power forward is currently holding out from Cleveland's camp as he reportedly rejected the team's five-year contract proposal worth $80 million. His agent is said to have changed their earlier five-year contract demand worth $94 million in favor of a $53 million deal over three years.
While James' statement may be used by Thompson as leverage to vindicate his holdout, the former has made it clear that he is neutral and said that he would never try argue with the decision of the Cavaliers bosses. "I'm not going to go to them and tell them what they should do. That's their job. They know how to do it very well, and they've done that to this point. They've brought in and did what they had to do for us to be a contending team. Tristan is a big part of that run we want to make. I believe that something will happen," James explained.
Tristan Thompson had a promising performance with the Cavs, delivering an average of 8.5 points and 8 rebounds per game playing in his first season with LeBron James. Cleveland reached the NBA Finals last season but was ultimately defeated Golden State Warriors.
