CLEVELAND — LeBron James strolled into Quicken Loans Arena at 5:32 p.m. for Game 4 of the 2018 NBA Finals on Friday evening. He kept his head down, buried in a phone in is left hand while holding a designer bag with his right. A few cameras flashed while reporters held their cellphones upright capturing video of what could be James' last arrival as a member of the Cavaliers. Considering the stage and the two-deep line of reporters who were waiting for James two nights earlier before Game 3, this seemed tame by comparison.
Ben Axelrod, a digital producer at NBC-WKYC 3 in Cleveland, knows why that feeling exists. Axelrod is a lifelong Cavaliers fan who has covered most of James' second stint in Cleveland. He's an engaging Twitter personality with more than 24,000 followers who talks about James' every move on a 24/7 timeline.
Like everybody else, Axelrod agonized with "The Decision" in 2010 and rejoiced with the comeback from 3-1 in the 2016 Finals for the city's first pro sports championships since 1964. Like everybody else, he seems resigned to what's coming this summer, and the new wave of emotions that will accompany LeBron's next step. Yet every time Axelrod talks about James, he smiles.
"That loss in Game 3 felt like more than one game," Axelrod said. "It felt like coming to terms with it. It felt that way a couple times in the playoffs, but it felt a lot like people coming to terms with, 'This probably isn't it for the season. This is probably it for the era.'"
It's a marriage between James, the local hero from Akron who has carried massive expectations since the time he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated at St. Vincent-St. Mary, and Cleveland, an organization that simply hasn't done enough to match the 6-8, 250-pound forward's immense talent.
That one championship will always have its reserved spot in Cleveland's heart, but James could leave after 11 seasons through two stints that will eventually have those same fans wondering if they should have won more titles. It came full circle Friday, when the Warriors finished off the sweep in a 108-85 victory.
In the moment, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue voiced an appreciation of what James has accomplished with this team.
"To be the best player in the world and to give everything you've got in your 15th season, play all 82 games, probably one of the greatest playoff runs that we'll ever see from an individual," Lue said. "To carry this team the way he did all season and leading by example, it's just a testament to his character and who he is as a person and as a player."
In these NBA Finals, James was poked in the eye. He twisted an ankle. He revealed a bruised hand suffered when he punched the whiteboard after the loss in Game 1 that typified his complicated relationship with Cleveland. James scored 51 points, but a series of late-game blunders gave the Warriors control and set up an uneasy offseason for both James, who must make a third free-agency decision, and Cleveland, a franchise that won the No. 1 pick three times in four years from 2011-14 and did little with that luck.
The Cavs' 2017 offseason led to owner Dan Gilbert and general manager David Griffin parting ways. Kyrie Irving was traded. The roster had to be overhauled again at the February deadline. That's why there's a feeling of resignation permeating throughout Cleveland again, even if it doesn't feel quite the same as 2010.
"That's the sentiment of a lot of fans," Axelrod said. "It really goes back to last summer and everything that happened with not only Kyrie and David Griffin. Everything was such an organizational failure that if LeBron wants to compete for titles, it's really tough to blame him."
June 14, 2007. Do you remember what Spurs forward Tim Duncan said to James after the Spurs swept the Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals?
"This is going to be your league in a little while," Duncan said to James. "I appreciate you giving us this year."
Cavs fans could live with that at the time. James broke the Pistons in those playoffs with a 48-point performance for the ages. It was assumed James would do this every year.
Duncan was right. For the last 11 years, the NBA has belonged to James. He added eight more NBA Finals appearances and three championships. He just didn't do all that with Cleveland as the front-page headline. The skeptics will always look at Page 2, which includes a stack of constant debates that tug at LeBron's legacy. Most of that drama came in Cleveland.
The Cavs' inability to surround James with enough help after the 2007 NBA Finals. "The Decision." Gilbert and Comic Sans font.
Immortal drama tied James' two terms in Cleveland together around the four-year sabbatical in Miami that produced the first two NBA championships. Those 11 seasons with the Cavaliers have produced five NBA Finals appearances and countless memories, including the legendary 3-1 comeback against Golden State in the 2016 NBA Finals.
"I mean, at the end of the day, I came back because I felt like I had some unfinished business," James said. "To be able to be a part of a championship team two years ago with the team that we had and in the fashion that we had is something I will always remember. Honestly, I think we'll all remember that."
We'll remember the drama, too. That started in the second stint with a chain reaction when Gilbert and Griffin parted ways on June 17, 2017. Irving was traded to Boston on Aug. 23, 2017. An attempt with to revive the roster with veterans Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose failed, and the Cavaliers flipped half the roster with a flurry of deadline deals.
James was influential in deals that handsomely paid Tristan Thompson, who didn't start for a large chunk of the playoff run, and JR Smith, who dribbled the wrong way with 4.9 seconds left in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. James stayed loyal to his teammates — and fellow Rich Paul clients — but this run ended the same way as 2007.
The Cavaliers were swept despite James' immaculate play. He averaged 34.0 points, 10.0 assists and 8.5 rebounds, including that wasted 51-point masterpiece. He threw the ball off the backboard to himself for a two-handed dunk. He fought against the Warriors to the best of his ability, but the end result was another NBA Finals loss.
James is now 3-6 in the NBA Finals, the biggest dent in his legacy because it's propped up against Michael Jordan, who won six championships during a pair of three-peats with the Bulls in the 1990s.
"I think it's never a success in the postseason when you lose, not for me," James said. "But for me personally, like I said, being reliable to my teammates, being able to play the game at a high level with as many games and as many miles as I have on my body and put together a run like I had in the postseason, it's something that I can kind of remember."
Here's the biggest difference from 2007, when Duncan hugged James — it's the Warriors' league now. Golden State enhanced James' "Super Team" model by adding Kevin Durant. The Warriors have won three of the four Finals installments against the Cavs, and the gap widened the last two years. That's heightened speculation James will bolt for another team this offseason, with the Rockets, Celtics, Lakers and 76ers all emerging as potential suitors.
That began in earnest with 4:03 left in the fourth quarter, when James walked off the floor to a generous round of applause and chants of "MVP! MVP!" at Quicken Loans Arena that lasted for about 15 seconds. He hugged teammates. He hugged Durant, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. He hugged personnel in the tunnel. Axelrod, like so many others, will be covering what's next until July.
"It's tough to gauge what he's going to do just because everything he's done in his career has been so unpredictable," Axelrod said. "The answer he gave at media availability (after Game 3) led me to believe he's leaving."
Of course, that answer had to do with talent. James has harped on the need for playmakers. Just like it was in 2010, the big question is whether Cleveland has surrounded James with enough talent. That will be the No. 1 culprit should he move on.
If James is going to pile on more championships in the twilight of his career, then he has to be in the spot that has the most talent around him. Cleveland is not that place right now, but every location has pros and cons.
That goes for Houston, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Those are the NBA's blue-blood markets, but that has no bearing on how James will decide. He walked into his final press conference of the season at 12:34 a.m. Saturday and was grilled for 15 minutes on the subject.
"I'm not going to take you throughout the whole process," James said. "That's not fun. But at the end of the day, like I said, when I decide what I'm going to do with my future, my family and the folks that have been with me for the last, you know, 20 years, pretty much, will have a say-so. Then it ultimately will come down to me, and so we'll see what happens."
James walked off a few minutes later with far more cameras flashing when he walked out of the tunnel. It sets up another summer in which James will dominate the headlines until that decision is made, and the city of Cleveland will hope for one last surprise from its local hero.
What will that mean this time? To put that in perspective, Axelrod looks at the banners at the Cleveland Clinic Courts, the Cavs' practice facility. James arrived, left and came back — and he very well might leave again — but those banners are forever. The magnitude of those moments should last long after James is done playing, and his career will resonate more in Cleveland than anywhere else.
James finished his business with that 2016 championship, but there are more personal matters to attend to. Everybody will be watching again.
"I think it's the biggest story in sports history," Axelrod said. "My views are slanted, but for him growing up in Akron and being the savior in Cleveland and everything he went through with 'The Decision' and all that, it only enhances it.
"I always say I'll continue to root for him wherever he goes."
