He didn't look comfortable. At 25 years old, he's already grown into one of the most media-savvy individuals in the sporting world. He's handled every situation and answered every question you could ever imagine — but his one continued failure has been to win a championship, and having to answer the same questions again, spring after spring, was eating away at him.
And this time, there was an added twist.
King James sat before the media this time to be peppered with questions about what this postseason meant for his future, whether it be with the Cleveland Cavaliers or elsewhere — New York, Chicago, God knows where else. And it wasn't a topic he was in the mood to address.
"I didn’t play this season," he said after a brief pause, "wondering what I was going to do in the offseason. I approached every game, every practice, every day like it was my last. I just wanted to try to continue getting better as a leader and as a player every day. Never, at any point, did it factor in what I’m going to do this summer."
Knowing the arc his career has taken and the setbacks he's endured, that can't possibly be the truth.
This is the fifth consecutive year that the Cavs have made it out of the first round in the Eastern Conference playoffs, only to come up short of winning a single NBA Finals game. They were knocked out in round two in 2006; they reached the Finals for the first time in '07, but were completely overmatched against Tim Duncan's Spurs.
In '08, the Celtics knocked them out for the first time. In '09, it was Orlando. Now Boston again.
The emotions that come with losing never change. LeBron knows that.
"I feel the same way," he said on Thursday night. "I have no plans at this point. I’ve made no plans. I want to continue to win throughout the postseason, that’s what I gear myself toward. And the fact that it’s over right now is definitely a surprise for myself. It is what it is. A friend of mine told me today after the game that I guess you have to go through a lot of nightmares before you finally accomplish your dream. That’s what’s going on individually for myself right now."
LeBron has big plans for himself in the future — and not just on the basketball court. He wants to build his name and his reputation to even greater heights. He wants fame and fortune unseen for any athlete before him.
But it all has to start with winning titles. No matter the talent or the wealth, no one remembers the athlete with no rings. LeBron's as aware of that as anyone.
No doubt, as he was watching the Celtics dismantle his Cavaliers on Thursday night and bring him his fifth straight postseason failure, he was thinking about making sure this wouldn't happen again. No doubt, he wanted a better future.
But after the game, he remained guarded about spelling that out.
"I will approach this summer with the right mindset," he said. "Me and my team will approach it the right way, but I haven’t really thought about just now. I'm kind of still trying to figure out what went wrong in this series, or things that we did right. We’ll see what happens.”
When asked what that phrase — "the right mindset" — really meant, LeBron hesitated. But he had an answer.
"First of all," he said, "I want to win. That’s my only thing. That’s my only concern. I’ve always prided myself on becoming a better basketball [player] individually and then taking it onto the court. I mean, it’s all about winning for me.
"I think the Cavs are committed to doing that, but at the same time, I’ll give myself options to this point. And like I said before, me and my team, we have a game plan that we’re going to execute, and we’ll see where we’ll be at."
In other words, nothing's decided yet.
And until LeBron makes up his mind, no one else can, either.
Mike Brown, his head coach, remains on the hot seat. Danny Ferry, the general manager pulling the strings, isn't necessarily safe, either. Shaquille O'Neal, the highest-paid man in the Cavaliers' locker room, has a decision to make. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a 14-year veteran with the Cavaliers, is an expiring contract as well.
A lot of people in the Cavaliers' organization have reached a crossroads. But no one can decide anything until LeBron does. Once the King makes up his mind, the rest of the dominoes should fall.
