LeBron James sings Jayhawks’ praises following Cavs’ victory parade in Cleveland

By Matt Tait     Jun 22, 2016

Thanks to a video recording from Twitter user @CJR16255, we now can all see just how Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James feels about Jayhawks.

Speaking to an estimated crowd of more than 1 million Cavs fans after Cleveland’s parade on Wednesday, James shared with the crowd a message he received from former KU star Mario Chalmers, with whom he won two titles in Miami, that mentioned the Jayhawks.

Here’s the Tweet and the video, which features James saying some pretty cool things about former KU center Sasha Kaun, who was a reserve with the Cavs this season and did not play in the Finals.

I remember when the Heat and Thunder played an exhibition game in Kansas City during the 2010-11 season, James’ first season in Miami. I asked him after the game about Chalmers’ pregame claim that it was Chalmers who would get the biggest ovation in KC and not King James.

James, who said Chalmers had been telling him that for weeks, didn’t even blink at the question and made it very clear how much he (a) knew about and (b) respected Kansas basketball and the traditions that come with it.

Here was James’ quote then….

> “I understand how big Kansas
> basketball is, and, with Rio and Cole
> Aldrich, I know how huge they were in
> college, so I understand. The fans
> were great. It’s always fun coming
> into cities that don’t have an NBA
> team, and they get an opportunity to
> see us live. And to come out here and
> play as well as we did was great.”

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.