James’ declaration that he’s “got to think about” retirement sets off a national firestorm, but will he really walk?
It was perfect.
Throughout the NBA’s Western Conference finals, Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone and a good number of his players kept railing against the idea that their team was winning and yet the national narrative was all about the Lakers.
So what happens? The Nuggets complete a sweep on Monday night, and Tuesday morning the nation was talking about LeBron James’ offhand comment at the end of his answer to a postgame question about how he evaluated his 20th NBA season: “Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”
Along with a confirmation to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that yes, when it came to possibly walking away, “I got to think about it,” LeBron single-handedly hijacked that national narrative that has been so terribly unkind to the nice little team from the Mountain time zone.
(Sarcasm intended, for those who might have missed it.)
It’s bound to happen: The morning after Denver wins the NBA championship – and I’m picking them in the Finals, by the way – LeBron will announce that he’s coming back after all, and you can guess which red meat the national talk shows will be devouring.
As I wrote following Monday night’s game, I don’t see him walking away yet. He’s got a chance to win a fifth title (and one-up Steph Curry). He’s under contract for $46.9 million next season with a player option for $50.6 million in 2024-25, and while the man is already a billionaire those are still powerful reasons to keep going.
Would he spurn a farewell tour by announcing his retirement in the summertime? Hard to tell, but I suspect not.
But was this instead a very public, if subtle, flex? Could it be, as colleague Mirjam Swanson noted, that this was LeBron’s first shot in the “Get Me Kyrie Irving” campaign, the risk of creating another top-heavy roster be damned?
The response to that potential development should be whether you want another version of the Russell Westbrook experiment.
