LeBron James Was Reportedly 'Shocked' by Former Cavaliers GM David Griffin's SI Interview

David Griffin is a new man. He's no longer an employee of the dreaded Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and he's running the show in New Orleans where the Pelicans got their hands on some elite talent in the NBA Draft.

Now that he's free and spreading his wings, he weighed in on his time with the Cavs and spoke a little bit about LeBron James. He didn't seem to be fond of his time in Cleveland.

The Pelicans filled the two biggest voids in David Griffin’s life: a youngster to nurture and a franchise to lead. A sabbatical has the executive recharged. And lessons from LeBron will help foster the perfect New Orleans environment to raise Zion et al https://t.co/zEJ8idTXvD
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) August 1, 2019

“Everything we did was so inorganic and unsustainable and, frankly, not fun. I was miserable,” Griffin told Sports Illustrated about the pressures of surrounding LeBron with formidable talent. “Literally the moment we won the championship I knew I was gonna leave. There was no way I was gonna stay for any amount of money.”

And according to reports, LeBron was pretty shocked by that.

Sources close to LeBron told ESPN he was “shocked” by how David Griffin characterized him in an interview with SI: https://t.co/rGdjai6sSQ pic.twitter.com/grQxaT15IG
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 2, 2019

The King has been taking a lot of shots recently, most notably about his involvement with his son's AAU basketball team, which is just something for people to talk about because there's nothing better going on.

Then again, Griffin has a point. The way the Cavs went about adding talent to their roster always seemed like it was over the top or beyond contrived. One would have to think he wasn't taking a shot at James, but when he's mentioned in the same breath as "miserable" and "unsustainable," it's hard for LeBron to read that the right way.