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The entire NBA is holding its breath. Since the official announcement of his departure from the Los Angeles Lakers on 30 June, LeBron James has become the focal point of a standstill in the off-season. And on Thursday 17 July, it was the league’s boss himself who finally spoke out. “We need to finish the season, and where LeBron plays will inevitably have an impact on that,” Adam Silver explained on CNBC. “I’d like him to finally make his announcement.”
It has been seventeen days since the four-time champion has kept everyone in suspense. Cleveland, Miami, Golden State, Philadelphia, Minnesota: the list of contenders changes by the hour, fuelled by a constant stream of rumours that no one can confirm. Even Brian Windhorst, the ESPN journalist who has been following James since his high school days in Akron, admits he’s at a loss. “The teams trying to sign him are consulting with one another, and they’re contacting me to ask what I’m hearing. No information has come from LeBron or Rich Paul,” he admitted.
It has been seventeen days since the four-time champion has kept everyone in suspense.
“It’s all a show,” accuses a former NBA champion
Kendrick Perkins, a 2008 NBA champion with Boston who has since become a star pundit on ESPN, doesn’t mince his words. “At this stage, the word that best describes what LeBron James is doing is ‘theatre’. I think he already knows where he wants to go. He loves all this attention,” he said on the programme First Take. This analysis is shared by many observers, who point out that the Ohio native had already turned his 2010 free agency into a TV spectacle with the famous ‘The Decision’.
The timing raises questions. The Football World Cup, now entering its final week in the United States, is monopolising global media attention. Some see this as a calculated move: waiting until the end of the World Cup so that the announcement of his destination dominates all sports news. At 41, King James masters his storytelling like no one else.
Pat Riley lights the fuse in Miami
The president of the Miami Heat added fuel to the fire on Thursday. Introducing Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had just arrived in Florida, Pat Riley slipped in a little remark that sent the basketball world into a frenzy: “We’ve managed to land the plane. Now there’s another one to land.” The message is barely veiled. Miami, where James already won two titles between 2010 and 2014, appears to be leading the way in this thriller-like saga.
Yet it is the commissioner who holds the most tangible key. Silver confirmed that James’s decision “will influence the first week of the season and the Christmas fixtures” – the biggest TV audiences of the regular season. No player in the history of American sport has ever wielded such power – for good or ill – over the schedule of a major league.
LeBron James was still averaging 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists last season. At 41, in his 24th season, he remains the ultimate marketing asset. The NBA, the franchises, the broadcasters and millions of fans are on the edge of their seats awaiting the next instalment of a saga that, it seems, never ceases to fascinate.