Former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mo Williams’ time as LeBron James’ teammate was unique in the sense that he played with James at times during both the icon’s two stints in a Cavaliers uniform.
First, James and Williams were Cavaliers teammates in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, the tail end of James’ first stint in Cleveland. Fast forward several years, and Williams spent his final NBA season, the 2015-16 season, with the Cavaliers, and James was in the middle of his second Cavs stint at that point.
As someone who had the pleasure of playing alongside James at two different stages of the superstar’s NBA career, Williams explained what separated a younger James from a James who was a two-time champion and a little bit older.
“Maturity, all the little things,” Williams said of what was different about James the second time around. “Maturity, just older, just doing things, just maturity.
“The first time I was there, he did all the things he was doing when he got back, but he was doing it better, and he was doing it more precise. He had it dialed in. When they talk about him taking care of his body, he was doing that the first time, but when I got with him the second time, it was like clockwork, you know what I’m saying?
“I knew what times he was gonna be down there. It’s gonna be early morning when he doing this. You know what time, how early he get to the game. You know when — he already gonna be there shootaround when we get there. You know he gonna be at the gym before the first bus get there. You know he getting a massage.
“I still remember that routine ’cause I saw it so much every single day, and that was the difference I saw. And obviously that translated to the court just off him just playing games and getting older and just being better and being one of the greatest players, and his game just matured.
“He just — everything got better, and obviously, the second time around, he shot the ball a whole lot better. I think that’s one of the biggest things. That part of his game kept growing and obviously got to the point where he at, but just the maturity in his game I’ll say, just off the decision-making, just being more sharper, just understanding spots on how to go get a bucket when he wanted to.”
Williams and James ultimately won a title together on the Cavaliers, though it took longer than some folks maybe expected for the duo to achieve that goal. After coming up short of the ultimate goal during James’ opening stint in Cleveland, James, Williams and the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA title.
It’s not as if James’ numbers during his second stint with the Cavs blew his numbers from his first Cleveland stint out of the water. However, he became more efficient and showed growth in the sense that he learned how to win at a high level.
He helped the Cavaliers to their most successful stretch in franchise history after his time with the Miami Heat. Cleveland reached four consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 through 2018 on top of the championship in 2016.
The Cavaliers didn’t miss the NBA Finals during the entirety of James’ second act in Cleveland, but the team hasn’t even experienced a fraction of that playoff success in the years since he departed for the Los Angeles Lakers. Cleveland has yet to make it out of the second round of the playoffs since then and bowed out in the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs despite ending the regular season as the top seed in the East.