In the wake of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Western Conference semifinals sweep at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James stood at the podium and delivered the line that has come to define this moment in his career.
“I don’t know what the future holds for me, obviously, as it stands right now tonight,” James said. “I’ll go back and recalibrate with my family and talk with them and spend some time with them, and then when the time comes, obviously you guys will know what I decide to do.”
With that, another Decision is in the offing, but the context for this one is considerably different than the one in 2010. At 41, in his 23rd NBA season, James had averaged 23 points, six rebounds, and seven assists across 10 playoff games while leading an injury-ravaged Lakers squad past the Houston Rockets in six games before running into a youthful Thunder buzzsaw. The numbers themselves are remarkable. The bigger picture — another postseason run at this point in his career, at this age — borders on the miraculous.
This season and playoff run fit neatly, if improbably, into the larger picture of one of the most extraordinary athletic careers any of us has ever witnessed. After missing the start of the season due to sciatica, James played 60 regular-season games, averaging 20.9 points, six rebounds, and seven assists on 51% shooting. He earned yet another all-star nod and, more importantly, led the Luka Doncic-less Lakers to the No. 4 seed in a loaded Western Conference. In the first round against the Rockets, James turned back the clock with vintage performances, including a Game 6 closeout on the road in which he poured on 28 points. Even in the loss to the Thunder, James was the Lakers’ best player.
The only real precedent in modern sports to James’s recent run is the age-defying late-career play of Tom Brady. Like Brady, James has combined sustained excellence with durability that defies every conventional understanding of what it means to be in one’s athletic prime. Brady won his seventh Super Bowl at 43 and could have kept playing deeper into his 40s. Instead, he stepped away while still demonstrably elite, unwilling to linger merely for the sake of playing. James, one suspects, is contemplating a similar calculus. If he returns for a 24th season, it will most likely be because he believes he can still be an integral piece of a legitimate championship contender.
And yet the uncertainty surrounding his next move cannot help but call to mind the original Decision 16 years ago. Then, the drama was about the destination: the team that drafted him, the Cleveland Cavaliers, or elsewhere? Now it is about whether there will even be another destination at all. The lack of clarity is precisely what will make the coming weeks and months so fascinating to watch. We are heading toward one of the greatest periods of suspense in James’s public life. This time, the fascination stems not from manufactured, made-for-TV drama but from genuine human stakes: a man who has accomplished more than almost anyone in his field deciding, on his own terms and in his own time, how and where to conclude an all-time-great career.
Whatever James decides, this latest season only burnishes an already incomparable legacy. He remains among the league’s most efficient and impactful players when healthy. Where once we spoke of players “declining” after 30, James has spent the past decade rewriting the aging curve itself.
So, now for the part you’re all waiting for: If James does decide to keep playing, where will he play? For me, there are really only four viable possibilities, each of which carry their own logic and complications — we’ll set aside salary cap ramifications for now.
Lakers
Staying in Los Angeles offers James a chance to remain in a city that he clearly likes and where he appears to wish to make his post-basketball home. The Lakers have made it clear that they want him back, and the opportunity to continue playing with his son, Bronny James, adds an undeniably compelling family dimension. But the Lakers, even if they bring back Austin Reaves, are not close to competing for a championship in the Thunder-dominated West. To get closer to reaching the level of the Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and even Minnesota Timberwolves, they’d need to completely retool the roster around Luka Doncic — and they won’t have the flexibility to do so if they bring back James. Choosing the Lakers would be choosing comfort over contending.
Cavaliers
A return to Cleveland would be the most poetic and most heartwarming choice — the ultimate homecoming, bookending a career that began in Akron with a triumphant third act. The Donovan Mitchell-led Cavs have become an ascending team, and James could provide the veteran leadership and playoff pedigree that turns a good team into a great one. The emotional pull of Cleveland would be enormous, though the question would be whether James could find it within himself to come back to a franchise that he’s already spurned twice.
Golden State Warriors, also known as ‘the Basketball Expendables’
Teaming up with Stephen Curry in Golden State would be basketball’s version of a Hollywood buddy comedy crossed with The Expendables, especially if they can also swing a trade for Kawhi Leonard — two, maybe three, all-time greats, longtime rivals-turned-friends, chasing one final ring together. The Warriors still possess championship DNA and a sophisticated offensive system that could extend James’s effectiveness. Basketball-wise, this would be the most compelling move for him. Lifestyle-wise, it may be his least appealing, given that he’d have to sublimate himself to a city and a franchise that’s been Curry’s for nearly two decades.
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My New York Knicks
We know James loves a big stage, and there is none bigger than Madison Square Garden. The Knicks could offer him the best mix of basketball and market reasons for joining the team. As evidenced by their current playoff run, they’re far closer to being a championship team than the Lakers, especially in the more open Eastern Conference. And the only bigger media market than Los Angeles is New York. There would also be the added benefit, if my Knicks can’t pull it off this year, of winning a title in New York, which would burnish his legacy. James has already won championships for three franchises — what if he does it for a fourth? And what if that fourth franchise is not just any old team but the team with the most fans in the country — and the fanbase that is most ravenous for a title after a 50-plus-year championship drought?
In a way, we should savor this unclarity while it lasts. Once James does make his next Decision, it will surely be his last. One era will end, and another will begin. Whatever comes next, we will be watching. And we will be grateful.
Daniel Ross Goodman is a Washington Examiner contributing writer and the Allen and Joan Bildner Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University. His next book, Dante’s Guide to Life: How The Divine Comedy Can Change Our Fortunes, Our World, and Ourselves, will be published this fall by Angelico Press.