The NBA world is used to waiting on LeBron James.
“The Decision,” the television program in which James announced he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, aired on July 8, 2010, a week into free agency. His first-person essay in Sports Illustrated, as explained to Lee Jenkins, was published on July 11, 2014. James was quicker in signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, but that was the exception. Generally, James has not operated on the NBA’s timeline. The league has conformed to The King’s whims.
In July, we might see if that still holds, with James heading into his age-42 season. That assumes he plays. As The Athletic’s Candace Buckner argued, there is a good case for James to retire, which he did not rule out after his Lakers were swept out of the playoffs earlier this week.
What should he do? Not having to consider finances or James’ specific (and largely unknown) priorities, members of The Athletic’s NBA staff have some ideas.
You can go home again (and again)
• My heart wants James to end his career in Cleveland. The story writes itself: The game’s greatest player, arguably, keeps returning to his Midwest home. James and Ohio are synonymous with each other. That’s where he lived up to the expectations as an all-time great. That’s where it started. I’d love for that to be where it ends.
My head tells me that James will stay in California but go to the Golden State Warriors. It just feels like James and Stephen Curry have always wanted to play together. But it’s not my preference. — James Edwards III
• Whenever the Lakers have come to town the past couple years, I’ve tried to remind myself: You’re watching one of the great athletes of all time. Enjoy this. Don’t take it for granted. But I admit: Watching LeBron ride it out for another season on a team that has no chance of winning a title (as long as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama stay healthy) does not excite me.
One way for LeBron James to top Michael Jordan? Go back to the team that drafted you for a third time. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Cleveland is the better option. Sports are great with opening chapters (promise!) and middle chapters (rings!), but they stink at closing chapters (retire!). Superstars can reach unimagined heights, but they never know when to hop off the escalator before it breaks down. Or in this case, where. Cleveland is the obvious move. No one would appreciate a LeBron farewell tour more than those who were there when it started. A perfect ending to a brilliant career. — Doug Haller
• While there are many places where James’ career could end, there is only one place where it should end: Cleveland. As fun as it might be to imagine, say, him and Curry taking one more shot at glory together by teaming up in Golden State, or him trying to drag the Grizzlies to the playoffs while renting a penthouse in the Memphis Hyatt Centric, or him joining up with a power team like the New York Knicks or Boston Celtics to snag another ring, the narrative is the same: LeBron would merely be a mercenary in that setup, in a city where he has no connection. He can stay in Los Angeles for that.
James finishing things off in Cleveland, however? That would have meaning. Playing for a real contender, in the city where it all started and in the region where he was born and raised, would be the perfect finishing touch, the cherry on the sundae that is among sports’ all-time great careers. Virtually any other landing spot would feel hollow, if not downright weird, in comparison. — John Hollinger
• “CLEVELAND! THIS IS FOR YOU!”
Look, James told me in April that he doesn’t even like going to Cleveland, along with Memphis and Milwaukee. But he’d just be in Cleveland for work with a team that could be quite intriguing. Plus, he’d get to visit the other 27 NBA cities. James has enough gas in the tank to play at a high level, and the Lakers have enough on-ball players.
The Miami Heat version of LeBron was the most powerful, but we don’t need to see him go back there. If the end is near, let it be in a Cavaliers uniform. — Law Murray
A Hollywood ending
• I would love to see one last season with the Lakers. I thought that March stretch, when James was functioning as the third option and filling in all the gaps, was awesome. I could not believe he dove on the floor twice for loose balls in that overtime win over the Nuggets. You just don’t expect to see one of the all-time greats playing like that in his 23rd season. It was unbelievable.
Let’s have him run it back one more season in that same role in Los Angeles. Right now, his career has four relatively clean chapters: the start in Cleveland, the sojourn to Miami, the return to Cleveland and the ending in Los Angeles. Trying to grab one last ring with the Lakers in his final season while serving as the do-it-all third option with Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves would be the outcome I’d enjoy watching most. — Eric Nehm
A generational pairing
• If the NBA is actually moving forward on a European league — and according to our Joe Vardon, the answer is yes — I would love for LeBron to be a part of it.
There’s not much left for him to accomplish stateside. He’s already got four rings, four MVPs and the NBA’s all-time scoring crown. Instead of signing up for one or two more years with the Lakers, who are clearly trying to build around Luka Dončić, why not head for Paris, London or Milan instead? James could set a precedent of star players spending their twilight years in glamor markets on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The only problem with this plan is that NBA Europe isn’t expected to launch until October 2027, which means that James would need something to do between now and then. I propose he sign a one-year deal with the Warriors in the interim. It was a blast watching him suit up next to Steph Curry during the 2024 Olympics. James would love teaming up with him — and playing for Steve Kerr — again. — Christian Clark
• Would they win a title? Probably not, but it would be a fascinating way for James, Curry and Draymond Green to wind down their careers.
The trio would have won more games seven or eight years ago but would still give the Warriors a chance to compete. Selfishly, I would love to see all of that basketball IQ together on the same court. The James-Curry pick-and-roll partnership would put a lot of pressure on defenses regardless of which one would be handling the ball on any given possession.
The Warriors don’t have any obvious path to contention, so they might as well pair the two best players of a generation. — Jay King
• There is nothing left for James to accomplish, at least if he is going to play only one more year. He can’t catch Michael Jordan in titles, nor should that be a driving factor at this stage. On the way out the door, then, I’d like to see him team up with Curry in Golden State.
It would be a lot. They would dominate the NBA discussion starting the moment it happened. They would be a traveling roadshow. But that would echo another decision — The Decision — from earlier in his career. If you owned season tickets for one of the other 29 teams, Miami was the game you could not miss. The Warriors would be the same way.
With the Nike/Under Armour battle no longer an issue, it would be awesome to see the two all-timers play together, specifically witnessing how Curry’s joy meshed with James’ maniacal calculation over six months. Throw in the odd Green misadventure, and this would be glorious.
As far as post-championship Warriors subplots go, watching LeBron and Steph try to go all “The Expendables” on the league would be a lot more interesting than the Jonathan Kuminga saga. Now to find a way to make sure the Warriors never have to play a back-to-back set. — Eric Koreen
Wild cards
• I want LeBron James to pull a Tony D’Amato.
D’Amato, as every fan of scenery-chewing, eyeball-losing, insanely over-the-top melodrama from Mr. Oliver Stone knows by now, was the aging head coach of the Miami Sharks in the 1999 film “Any Given Sunday,” Stone’s paean to pro football. At the end of the film, having proven he could still coach a team to an improbable playoff win, D’Amato is expected to retire. Instead, he announces he’s going to become the head coach and general manager of an expansion team in Albuquerque — and is signing the Sharks’ star quarterback, Willie Beamen, as a free agent. He leaves the news conference with all of the Sharks’ ownership and management yelling at him.
I so want LeBron to do this. Get with the Golden Knights’ owner, Bill Foley, who wants to add an NBA team in Vegas and who has reportedly enlisted the help of Magic Johnson, the Lakers’ Hall of Fame legend. For years, James said he had aspirations to own an NBA team and was linked to Vegas himself. But recently, both he and the Fenway Sports Group, with whom he is a partner, said they were no longer interested in pursuing an NBA expansion team.
Perhaps LeBron James and Magic Johnson will have cause to work together in a new city. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
So get with Foley and Magic! Don’t declare your involvement until after Vegas is awarded an expansion team with Seattle. At the introductory presser, walk out unannounced and declare that you’re not only going to be the new head coach and president of basketball operations of the Vegas team, but you’ve just bagged Luka Dončić as a free-agent-to-be for the 2030-31 season.
This preposterous scenario is brought to you by Trazodone. Trazodone: when you don’t just want to sleep; you want to forget how your life’s turned out. — David Aldridge
• I highly, highly doubt LeBron would want to finish out his playing days in Minnesota, but let me assure him that we have better hotels here than they have in Memphis.
Other than the weather, the basketball situation makes a ton of sense. He could play with a young star in Anthony Edwards, whom he really enjoys, and would be surrounded by great defenders who could take the pressure off him on that end. Meanwhile, he would immediately address one of the biggest weaknesses the Timberwolves have by installing one of the smartest players to ever play with a group that often struggles with decision-making. Plus, the traffic is so much lighter in the Twin Cities than in L.A. or the Bay Area!
So c’mon, Bron; pull a couple of those Cleveland coats out of storage and give yourself one more real chance in Minnesota. — Jon Krawczynski
• LeBron is spiritually a Buckeye. Like many Northeast Ohioans, he grew up an Ohio State fan. He famously didn’t go to college, but the honorary Ohio State degree recipient has been pretty vocal about his love of the university’s sports teams through the years. James has provided Nike gear to teams and supported from the sidelines, and he’s even got his own locker. He should take his talents to … Columbus, Ohio — just not for the team you think.
Since James played professionally, he’s not eligible to play NCAA basketball. But he is potentially eligible to play a different sport, like his former teammate J.R. Smith, who played golf at North Carolina A&T after retiring from the NBA.
James has never roamed the campus as a Buckeye star. He’s never sang “Carmen Ohio” in the end zone after a big home win. But he’s always wanted to. So why not join the football team?
Is this ridiculous? Absolutely. Would I tune in every Saturday to see how it goes? No doubt about it. — Shakeia Taylor
