The inevitable went down on the Crypto.com arena floor last night; the current incarnation of the Los Angeles Lakers is simply no match for the juggernaut that is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Despite the best efforts of undoubtedly the best 41-year-old man to ever lace up sneakers, LeBron James’ spirited playoff run came to the chalk bet end many feared–a four-game sweep and the seventh season out of his eight in La-la-land where his quest to place a ring on his other hand fell short.
But as THE ATHLETIC’s Chris Branch noted in the PULSE newsletter he dropped into subscribing inboxes this morning, this particular elimination felt all the more funereal:
The ending felt heavy…because there’s a distinct possibility it was the last time we’ll see LeBron James play an NBA game. We have no concrete reporting on that just yet, and James himself was non-committal about his future after the game. One-time teammate and longtime friend Dwyane Wade said on the broadcast that James will, per usual, take his time in the offseason to decide his future. But man. What if that really was it?
James is 41 years old and has played in a total of 1,924 games. Even a superhuman player would’ve been done years prior. Not James, who already has the greatest career we’ve ever seen.
CBS SPORTS’ John Gonzalez devoted a good deal more internet space to the topic in the piece he dropped late last night:
Hedging in that moment was extremely on brand. This man turned The Decision into a national TV event. Fat chance he was going to say goodbye in the wee small hours with precious few people watching after getting swept by OKC. He has options to weigh. These things take time and planning, and especially pomp and pageantry. The hunch here (and everywhere) has long been that when James decides the end is nigh, he’ll order up the Kobe Bryant deluxe retirement tour package and make it a season-long celebration.
The burning question is whether or not said celebration will be while he’s wearing a Lakers uniform. Gonzalez continued:
James is a free agent after failing to squeeze one last multiyear deal out of the Lakers last offseason. The Lakers smartly declined, instead choosing to prioritize cap space this summer when they’ll be looking to hammer out new terms with Reaves, who is certain to decline his player option for a bigger payday.
So where does that leave James? What are the odds for his next team and is retirement actually a possibility? As he said during the season with a healthy dusting of incredulity, “I can fit in with anybody.” If there were questions about his willingness to serve in a supporting actor role instead of being the leading man, he seemed to answer that this season.
But where will that supporting role be best suited? There’s the emotional tug of running it back to Cleveland once more, where last night the Cavaliers assured themselves of at least two more post-season games with a spirited run that evened up their series with the Detroit Pistons. There’s the geographically viable move up north to the Golden State Warriors, where Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, among others, are facing their own career mortalities. There’s his personal Ahabian lure to Madison Square Garden, which he supposedly gave serious consideration to in 2018 when the Knicks were a LOT farther from a realistic title contender than they are now.
Gonzalez made a compelling case for status quo:
Staying with the Lakers would make a lot of sense for everyone. He’s already demonstrated his willingness to let Dončić and Reaves lead the way, his son plays for the team, his considerable off-court business interests are in L.A., not to mention the marketing value he represents to the Lakers simply by being LeBron. If he wants a farewell tour — and of course he does — who better to throw the biggest goodbye bash in pro sports history than the Lakers? Provided he’s willing to take a considerable discount so the Lakers can add supplemental roster pieces to the party.
He can more than afford to take a haircut–even though he’s sporting a lot less of it nowadays. But could a Lebron in his age 42 season be impactful enough even with a healthy Doncic to make up enough of the gap that already clearly exists between them and OKC, let alone anyone in the Eastern Conference that’s looming at the end of any rainow.
What little precedence there is to factor into that potential might lie in looking how another Laker great did in his own swan song season. To be sure, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his 40s was a shadow of what he was in his 20s and 30s. But he did help lead them to a second straight title before electing not to go out on top. That final season saw year over year declines of -31% decline in scoring, -25% in rebounding and a -21% decline in utility. And while the Lakers did make it to the NBA finals, they were swept away by a revenge-motivated Pistons squad that they had narrowly edged in seven games the year before. Happy endings aren’t always a given, ya know.
It’s a conundrum, to be sure. It will undoubtedly occupy a disproportionate amount of space in the pages of every Southern California publication you can name. And since this is the first time the California POST will be a part of it you can be sure that speculation will be daily, rampant and even more Tevye-like than ever. Who do you think drove most of the narrative in New York when the Knicks were supposedly a contender for his services?
Get your popcorn ready for an even busier news cycle than if the Lakers were actually still playing games.
Courage…