INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- More than three months after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost their Finals matchup with the Golden State Warriors, several Cavs team leaders say they plan to funnel that disappointment to fuel them for the 2015-16 season.
"From me there's going to be a lot more rage, a lot more emotion," Cavs guard Kyrie Irving said at the team's media day Monday. "There won't be too much smiling or anything like that from our team. That's the mentality we have to have. We're looking forward to the challenge."
Irving's declaration echoed LeBron James', who is coming off the fourth Finals loss of his career. James shared how the Miami Heat's championship defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 put his team in the proper mindset to take it all in 2012.
"One thing that we did that didn't even need to be talked about after we lost our first year in Miami when we came back, we was angry," James said. "We was very, very, very angry. And everybody that we went against knew it when we came back."
James said that Heat team showed its mettle from opening night, heading on the road to Dallas and leading by 32 points after three quarters while spoiling the Mavs' ring ceremony.
"That whole year, it was like, there was no wait process," James said. "We was like 'OK, we messed around, lost one, but, right now, let's not think about it, go out and we want to play to the highest of our ability every single night.'"
This year's Cavs started their redemption process even sooner than that Heat team did, as James gathered the team for a minicamp in Miami earlier in the month ahead of the official team training camp which begins Tuesday.
"It was just time to get our mind right, right now," James said in a sit-down interview Monday. "Why wait? Why wait until training camp? That's all. Come together. See some familiar faces. Get some work in and start to think about what our goal is. We know what our ultimate goal is. So we don't need to talk about it too much."
James added that he and his teammates "talked about the hurt from the Finals" while in Miami together.
It's a hurt the Cavs hope doesn't heal too soon. Letting it fester is part of the plan.
"I definitely expressed some of my feelings to my teammates and we all share the same feeling that we haven't forgotten," Irving said. "I haven't forgotten. ... We haven't forgotten what it took to get there and while we were there, the experience. But now it's getting better as a team and getting better and more prepared mentally for what the challenges are ahead for us.
"Because every team is going to come into our building or we're going to go into their building and they're definitely going to bring their energy. ... But for us, we're staring right back at them and we're coming in with the mentality that we're coming for everyone, as well as everyone is coming for us."
