{"id":840323,"date":"2026-09-08T07:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840323\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T07:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:00:27","slug":"delonte-west-reveals-lebron-james-made-surprise-cavaliers-recruitment-pitch-during-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840323\/","title":{"rendered":"Delonte West reveals LeBron James made surprise Cavaliers recruitment pitch during game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Delonte West has revealed that LeBron James personally tried to recruit him to the Cleveland Cavaliers during a game, months before the franchise eventually traded for the guard.<\/p>\n

West was playing for the Seattle SuperSonics when Cleveland visited in the opening month of the 2007-08 season, with James apparently already aware of what the guard could offer.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers had reached the NBA Finals the previous season, but James was clearly thinking about how to improve the team around him.<\/p>\n

\"(051111Photo by Matt Stone\/MediaNews Group\/Boston Herald via Getty ImagesLeBron James was already recruiting before the \u2018LeGM\u2019 era<\/p>\n

Speaking on Derrick J. Trapten\u2019s YouTube channel, West recalled James bringing up his college career while the two were on court.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018Man, I followed you in college. You remember that time I came to Philly at the Palestra to watch you play?\u2019 He was like, \u2018Man, you want to come play with Cleveland?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

West initially thought James was simply trying to distract him during the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was serious. He asked me to, believe that, man, he asked me to come play with him during the game. So they traded me. They did a trade during the trade deadline to go to Cleveland,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

Cleveland eventually acquired West and Wally Szczerbiak from Seattle on February 21, 2008, as part of a three-team trade that also brought Ben Wallace and Joe Smith to the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

The move worked quickly. West started all 26 games he played for Cleveland after arriving and averaged 10.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists.<\/p>\n

MORE SEATTLE SUPERSONICS STORIES<\/p>\n

West was hardly a random target, either. During his final college season at Saint Joseph\u2019s, he averaged 18.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists while helping the Hawks reach the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandPhoto by Doug Benc\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

His arrival also gave James another experienced guard during the early stages of his Cleveland career.<\/p>\n

Years later, that moment feels particularly notable because of the reputation James developed around roster construction. The \u201cLeGM\u201d nickname became shorthand for the perception that he has had a major influence on his teams\u2019 personnel decisions.<\/p>\n

West\u2019s story does not suggest James was running Cleveland\u2019s front office. It does, however, show that even as a young superstar, he was already identifying players he believed could help him compete.<\/p>\n

West never won a championship with James in Cleveland, but his recruitment remains a fascinating glimpse into how involved James was with his team\u2019s direction long before the \u201cLeGM\u201d label became part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Delonte West has revealed that LeBron James personally tried to recruit him to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8174,355823,3013,355,99447,99],"class_list":["post-840323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-delonte-west","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-seattle-supersonics","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}