LeBron James can’t retire this season.
There’s just no way that his last game in Cleveland could come and go without him giving Cavs fans a chance to say goodbye, to shower him with love, to both celebrate and mourn their last chance to see him.
James’ return to Cleveland on Wednesday was a tentpole moment in a season full of uncertainty.
He has insisted he is unsure whether he will retire, as he did Wednesday after the Lakers’ 129-99 loss to the Cavs. But it’s inconceivable that the franchise’s hometown hero, who took the team to five NBA Finals and their only championship in their 55-year history, would slip quietly into the night without a mutual recognition between him and the fans of the profound finality of it all.
The Cavs celebrated James, but not enough to mark the magnitude of it the end.
Outside the Lakers’ locker room, the Cavaliers hung a photo of James holding his 2016 championship and MVP trophies with the words, “Welcome home, LeBron.” There was also a photo of an 11-year-old Bronny celebrating the Cavaliers’ title, as well as a photo of James’ right-hand man, Randy Mims.
There was a short video tribute to James early in the first quarter that included clips of him scoring 25 straight points in Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals as he led the Cavs to a 109-107 double-overtime win over Detroit. James received a standing ovation after it was played.
He choked back tears, something he hadn’t done during the previous seven tribute videos he’s received since leaving Cleveland in 2018.
“I didn’t expect that,” James said after finishing with just 11 points, three rebounds and five assists. “But obviously a lot of memories here, a lot of history. So just super grateful and grateful for the time I spent here and the memories. Obviously I looked up, I remember that moment like it was yesterday.”
His unusual outpouring of emotions might lead some people to believe he is on the verge of retirement.
But if that were the case, wouldn’t he want Cavs fans to know? Wouldn’t he want to give everyone in the arena a chance to scream from the moment his name was called during the introductions, instead of the reception he got on Wednesday, which was a warm cheer with only a few people standing.
If this were the end, wouldn’t he want the cameras to look at his mother Gloria and his wife Savannah? Wouldn’t he want his childhood friends to greet him at his locker, like they did when he became the league’s all-time leading scorer in 2023 in Los Angeles?
You’d think James’ last game in Cleveland would feel memorable.
This didn’t happen. This was not a goodbye.
It can’t be goodbye.
Not for James, who arrived in Cleveland as an 18-year-old with a crushing amount of pressure on his shoulders after being labeled “The Chosen One” by Sports Illustrated and selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 draft. James exceeded expectations.
He took a Cavs team to the 2007 Finals that had nothing to do with being deep in the playoffs. He then carried the franchise to four consecutive finals appearances from 2015-2018. He engineered the greatest comeback in NBA history, helping his team come back from a 3-1 deficit in the 2016 Finals against the Warriors, the league’s modern dynasty, fulfilling his promise to put the franchise on the mountaintop.
He then went on to call himself the greatest player of all time.
All this happened in Cleveland, just 40 miles from Akron, where he was raised by a single mother living below the poverty line. All of this happened just a 35-minute drive from where James has dedicated the past two decades to uplifting his community through his I PROMISE School and various other philanthropic efforts.
Do you think he would step foot in Rocket Arena for the last time without letting the fans know that this was the end? Without celebrating it properly?
Impossible.
James is no Tim Duncan, who sailed into the sunset without letting anyone know he was retiring.
James loves marching band. He announced he was going to Miami in 2010 with an hour-long TV special. He moved to Los Angeles to play for one of the two largest media markets in the NBA in 2018. He even appeared in the movie ‘Space Jam’.
Speaking to the media after the match, James insisted he had still not made a decision on his future. James claimed he hadn’t even thought about a farewell tour, adding: “I haven’t talked to myself or my family yet about when it’s over.”
But he also said he wanted to see “how much juice I can squeeze out of this orange,” adding, “I’m in a battle with Father Time and I’m taking it personally. I’m going to see how many more times I can triumph over him.”
James still has a lot to give.
He is averaging 22.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game in his 23rd season. It’s unprecedented. James didn’t play like James on Wednesday. It’s hard to imagine him going out like that. If this were the case, he wouldn’t have let Lakers coach JJ Redick pull him from the game just 3 1/2 minutes into the fourth quarter.
He would like to put on a show.
To the people in and around Cleveland, James means everything. A 38-year-old fan named Shanice Cheatham purchased season tickets to Cavs games next season in hopes that James would return for a third stint with the team in free agency.
Another fan, 26-year-old Aidan Dance, called James “my hero” and added that if James returned to Cleveland, “I would be a grown man crying.”
James won’t disappear so quietly. Cleveland means too much to him. And he means too much to the city. There’s no way he wouldn’t let his fans know that this was their final farewell.
He wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t.
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