LeBron James on Cleveland Indians' World Series: 'It's Miller time'
CLEVELAND ― The Chicago Cubs were threatening.
The Cleveland Indians were up 3-0 in the top of the seventh inning in Game 1 of the World Series. The bases were loaded and ALCS MVP Andrew Miller was on the mound, pounding the strike zone with low sliders. The Cubs’ 39-year-old catcher David Ross was at the dish.
Simultaneously, LeBron James was conducting his postgame interview in the back left corner of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ locker room after cruising to an opening night victory over the New York Knicks.
James, eyes fixated on the TV showing the Indians’ first World Series game since 1997, tried to answer a question about the emotions of ring night.
“Once the game got going, I was ready to go," James said. "Different stages and unique stages, your warm-ups get messed up, your routine gets messed up a little bit — he struck him out. That’s great. It’s Miller time. Yeah. Difficult to kind of focus on the game just because of everything that’s going on.”
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LeBron and the Cavs are hooked. Hooked like a starving fanbase searching for its first World Series title since 1948.
James and his teammates are planning to go to Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday night. James was asked how excited he'll be to be there.
“Let’s close this one out first,” he answered astutely with a World Series Indians jersey draped in his locker room stall. “Close this one out first. I’m glad we were able to handle business and we can enjoy ourselves tomorrow.”
James, who once famously wore a New York Yankees hat to a Tribe playoff game, has undoubtedly become a fan. It’s why he and Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade made a wager on the outcome of the World Series.
“Whoever wins have to wear the other opponents uniform to the game, so if the Indians win the World Series, he has to wear an Indians uniform when he comes here to play Cleveland,” James said. “If the Cubs win it, I gotta wear a Cubs uniform when we play in the United Center.”
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James’ teammates can’t wait for Wednesday’s Game 2, either. J.R. Smith admitted he even wanted to try and make the end of Game 1.
“Talking about it during the game,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “It was five minutes left in our game, they were still in the bottom of the fourth. I was like ‘Yo, we can run over and make it real quick.’ They’re doing a bang-up job, so we’re good.”
Even though Smith didn’t make it Tuesday night to Game 1, there were enough in-game highlights shown by the Cavs’ production staff to keep the fans – and the players – well informed.
“We were watching it (during timeouts), too, honestly,” Smith said. “We were watching it, strikeouts and hits. We watched (Roberto) Perez’s home run. We were watching the game, granted we were still paying attention in the huddle.”
Sure. The Cavs game got out of hand midway through the third quarter. No one could’ve blamed Smith for taking an early peek.
“Hopefully they achieve their goal like we did ours, and they’ll have their moment.”
Follow Michael Singer on Twitter @MSinger
