Hunt is on: Who will get LeBron?
San Antonio for
On Thursday, George told the Oklahoma City Thunder he’s declining his $20.7 million option for next season.
James already has some shallow roots on the West Coast with two homes in the Los Angeles area and a film production company.
The chance to join one of the league’s most iconic franchises has an appeal to James and he said following this year’s Finals that he remains in “championship mode.”
The Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets are also believed to covet the four-time league MVP, who just played in his eighth straight Finals.
James will factor family — he has three children, and his oldest son is a rising hoops star — into the choice of where he plays next.
James just completed his 15th NBA season, and it may have been his best yet.
He played all 82 regular-season games for the first time, averaging 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and a career-high 9.1 assists per game.
He showed no signs of slowing down; if anything he had found a new gear.
James then carried the Cavs, with their flawed roster after a massive trading deadline turnover, through the Eastern Conference playoffs — they survived two Game 7s and swept the top-seeded Toronto Raptors — to the NBA Finals for a fourth straight meeting with the Golden State Warriors.
It was James’ eighth consecutive Finals appearance, a remarkable feat not matched since Hall of Famer
and a handful of Celtics did it in the 1960s.
Cleveland was overmatched but James had the Cavs in position to steal Game 1 before a late-game missed free throw by and mental meltdown by Cavs forward who dribbled out the final seconds of regulation thinking his team was leading, led to an overtime loss. With MVP
heading the charge, the Warriors completed a sweep of the Cavs and James, who revealed following the series that he had broken his right hand in a fit of frustration following Game 1.
James had numerous reasons to be upset.
He had done everything possible, and as he left Quicken Loans Arena following Game 4 along with his sons, there was an air of uncertainty heading into this summer.
Those unknowns remain, but James is closer to solving them.