LOS ANGELES — LeBron James didn’t have a tee time waiting for him on Tuesday.
A running joke around the Lakers this season was to ask James when and where his tee time was. The newly addicted golfer almost always had 18 holes set up somewhere before noon.
But as James walked out of Crypto.com Arena Monday night, he had to adapt. The season was over. There would be no flight to Oklahoma City for Game 5. And, because he thought there would be more basketball, there was no tee time either.
Whatever comes next, though, James has vowed to figure it out. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer will soon officially become an unrestricted free agent, saying he was unsure about his future after the Thunder finished off a sweep of the Lakers with a 115-110 win in Game 4.
“With my future, I don’t know. Honestly,” James said after the final game of his 23rd NBA season. “It’s obviously still fresh from losing. And I don’t know. I don’t know what the future holds for me …
“As it stands right now, tonight, I got a lot of time.”
League sources continue to say James is sincerely unsure about whether he wants to continue playing. A return to the Lakers is a possibility, though he’s sure to have other suitors in free agency, especially if he takes a sizable pay cut from the $52.6 million he made this season.
If he signs for less money, it’ll be the first time in his career that his salary is lower than the year before.
The expectation, according to a league source, is that no decision will be imminent. James said he’d discuss things with his family despite being confident he can still impact winning at a high level.
“I think for me, it’s about the process. If I can commit to still being in love with the process of showing up to the arena five and a half hours before a game to start preparing for a game, giving everything I got, diving for loose balls and doing everything that you know that it takes to go out and play.” James said. “Showing up to practices, 11 o’clock practice, I’m there at eight o’clock preparing my body, preparing my mind, preparing to practice, to put the work in. So I think for me, I’ve always been in love with the process and not the aftermath of ‘Okay, we won that game, or we won a championship.’
“I’ve always enjoyed the process and not the outcome, so I think that, that would be a big factor.”
LeBron James and the Lakers couldn’t stop the Thunder Monday night in what may wind up the final game of his career (Allen Berezovsky / Getty Images)
In his final game of the season, James scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Members of James’ family, his management team and high-ranking Nike executives were there to watch him try to extend the second-round series.
He nearly did — before he and his teammates couldn’t.
His final basket came with 4:19 left in the fourth, fittingly a one-handed slam dunk to pull the Lakers within one. But he committed a key unforced turnover that led to a 3-pointer for the Thunder and missed his final two shots, the last with a chance to put the Lakers ahead in the final 20 seconds.
Should the 41-year-old retire, it will mark the end of an unmatched career that includes four NBA championships, four Most Valuable Player awards and an extensive list of records — most notably, the most points scored in a career.
“I’ll take time to recalibrate and look over the season and see what’s best for my future,” James said. “And when I get to that point, everyone will know.”
Remarkably, he showed few signs of slowing down in a record 23rd season.
James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists while missing just eight more games after sitting out the first 14 of the year with sciatic nerve irritation. He led the Lakers to a first-round victory over the Houston Rockets while playing the first four games without Austin Reaves and the entire round without Luka Dončić, after he’d settled into life as a third option prior to their injuries.
“I was put into some positions I never played in my career. Actually, in my life,” James said. “I’ve never been a third option in my life. So to be able to thrive in that role for that period of time and then have to step back into the role that I’ve been accustomed with over my career, over my life, playing a sport and being able to thrive under that … and then just my teammates allowing me to lead them under extreme circumstances, that was pretty cool for me at this stage in my career.”
James finished the Rockets series with 28 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the closing Game 6, with the Lakers outscoring Houston by 26 points when he was on the court.
“To me, he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player. You can argue all you want, and I really don’t care to postulate on who’s the greatest of all time, but he’s one of, if not the greatest of all time,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after that game. “And for him to do it again and answer the bell again, it’s really, it’s baffling in some ways. The leadership aspect that I talked about, he just has this ability to set the tone for the entire group. And he did that again tonight and our guys responded. I’m really happy for him.”
Reaves credited James for his mentorship over the past five seasons — a span that’s seen him go from an undrafted guard on a two-way contract to one of the top potential free agents this summer. Reaves said it would mean a lot to him for the two to remain teammates.
“I don’t know anything different,” Reaves said. “My rookie year, I had no idea what the hell was going on and he basically took me under his wing and given me every opportunity that I could ever ask for, trusted me. But further than the court, like building a real friendship — he obviously is into golf now so we’re a lot closer. But yeah, it’s been super fun and I hope to continue to do that. He’s taught me a lot. I owe him a lot for my career.”
James, now, will be left to figure out if he has more to give.
“The love of the game is always … it’s always there. I don’t think that ever goes away, no matter what you do,” James said. “That s— will never go away. We grow up playing a game that we love and you do it at a high level and I don’t think that’ll ever go away. But the process for me has always been so much more important because for me, personally, if I fell out of love with the process, then I probably fell out of love with the game. Because then I’m not treating the game with respect for me personally because I know how much work that I put into it.
“If I’m now showing up to the arena for game day two hours before the game, it’s like I’m cheating the process. If I’m showing up for practice at eleven o’clock practice, and I’m showing up at ten o’clock, 10:30, I’m cheating the process. So that means something is going on where I fell out of love with the game and the process, like if I’m not working on something. So that’s where it is for me.”