The broader context of Simmons’ comments: He opened on the Cavs by calling Cowherd’s assertion that Dion Waiters didn’t fit in and would need to be traded “one of the great jump-to-conclusion rants I’ve heard in recent ESPN history” and saying that you need 20 games before you decide what’s going on with the team. Nevertheless, he said it had jumped out since the preseason — “I assumed not to read too much into it” — that LeBron doesn’t “
look the same.”
“Anyone who thinks LeBron looks the same is fooling themselves,” Simmons said. “He doesn’t have the same impulsiveness. He looks 20
pounds lighter physically. Just his general force-of-natureness capacity — whatever you want to say — it’s not there. And he’s driving to the basket, and he’s under the rim now, and I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if he’s hurt, I don’t know if the big weight loss has affected his game or whatever. This is not a jump-to-conclusion thing. I have been watching this Cavs team since the preseason games started, and he does not
look the same.”
Simmons wondered: Maybe, with the coming home narrative and all the commercials, he’s just not in a basketball frame of mind yet? Then, before starting the Pujols theory, Simmons qualified it by saying, “It’s really early to say this, so please, sports blogs and people, don’t throw this in my face.”
