LeBlanc James made a “decision” again “?
James made “three decisions” in his career, in the summer of 2010, he brought his talent to Miami’s “Decision 1”; In the summer of 2014, he returned to the “Decision 2” of the Cavaliers; In the summer of 2018, he chose to join the “Decision 3” of the Los Angeles Lakers “.
After the Western finals of the Lakers and Nuggets series, Lakers star James said in an interview with the media that he would consider whether to continue his career. In silence, James revealed the idea of “Decision 4.
There is no suspense, the topic of “James retired” successfully rushed to the top of Weibo’s hot search. What is called no wind and no waves, the stone thrown by James after being eliminated has aroused thousands of waves on the Internet. In the Western final, the Nuggets swept out, which is undoubtedly a heavy psychological blow for a 38-year-old veteran.
Especially in the last battle, he almost gave everything to him. He only took a 5-second break at 47 minutes 55 seconds and won 40 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. He still failed to help the team win a victory.
This feeling of fatigue and helplessness may really make James feel tired. Perhaps it was because the words of the model Ling Liangke easily made more associations in the outside world. James himself later made a more detailed explanation, he said he was just not sure whether he would come back at the beginning of the new autumn season because there were many things to consider.
There is a day when flowers bloom again, and no one is young. The traces of time gradually appeared on this new NBA history scoring king, mottled white beard, as Yu Jia, a well-known sports commentator, said in his commentary, “the ruthless in this world is never a victory or defeat, but time.”
It is only a matter of time before James retires, but this answer may not appear this summer.
Fake “retirement”, really “pressure”?
Whether James really considers deciding to retire after finishing the final G4, I am afraid that this answer may only be known by himself and the team behind him. However, considering the performance of this season and James’s future, this “retirement” speech is more like forcing the Lakers to strengthen further this summer.
The Lakers have experienced ups and downs this season, from almost missed the playoffs to the final victory. Although the process was very thrilling, the final result was not necessarily unacceptable to Lakers fans. Faced with the team composed of players who are at the peak of their career, such as jokiki and Murray, the problem of completely enlarging the depth of the Lakers lineup-there are not many players who can play. Facing the nuggets of all soldiers, the Lakers had no choice but to surrender.
James played 55 games in the regular season, with an average contribution of 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists. He also played the good show of riding the savior alone at the last moment many times. Such excellent performance shows that James “still has a lot of oil in the tank”, but he still needs more help.
As long as James and “heavy eyebrows” remain healthy and their teammates can provide more combat capability, the Lakers are still one of the strong competitors in the O’Brien Cup. Facing the honor of the championship, I believe James will not easily stop chasing.
Therefore, from the perspective of competition, it is not so much “retirement” as “pressure”. James is more like urging the Lakers management to strengthen this summer, but it is not yet time to really consider retirement.
Last summer, James and the Lakers reached an early renewal. The two sides signed a two-year contract of 97.1 million dollars, and the last year was the player option. When the contract comes into effect, James will reach the age of 40 “.
According to foreign media reports, the Lakers were surprised that James talked about the topic of considering retirement, while the Lakers general manager Pelinka said in the season summary meeting that he would join the coach Darwin Hamm in the next few days, talk to James about his retirement topic.
It should be pointed out that this summer is destined to be very difficult for Pelinka. According to this season’s lineup, only six players have contracts with the team next season, namely James, Davis, Vanderbilt, Beasley, Bamba and Christie. It is still unknown whether the Lakers can finally stay with Reeves and eight villages, who have performed well this season.
“Commercial interests” prompted James to fight again
After analyzing whether James “retired” from the perspective of competition, one or two can also be seen from the perspective of business. Nowadays, James is not only a player, but also a more and more important label. Whether James retired or not should also be explored from several perspectives related to his personal business interests.
First of all, it is naturally the “father-son basketball” that fans know well and is also the most concerned “. James himself did not avoid hoping to play with his son. In an interview with The Athletic during his All-Star career in February, 2022, he said, “I will play with my son in The last year of my career. Where brownie is, I am. I will do everything I can to play with my son for a year. At that time, this decision had nothing to do with salary.”
James’s eldest son signed a contract with the University of Southern California brownie
“Where brownie is, I am.” This idea became the support of James’s struggle in the arena during his career years. Realizing the wonderful words of “Father and son team together” in high-level professional competitions will become the best memory of James’s career, it can also keep his business value at a very high level after retirement.
Second, the NBA league still has not found the next “James”. As long as James is still playing in NBA, he is the business card of the league. Curry and Durant certainly have a certain audience base. In terms of influence, they still have a certain gap with James.
Joquich, enbide, donchic, and French super star banyama, who will land in the United States next season if there is no accident, international players are gradually occupying the right to speak in NBA in recent years, in addition, young American players have not yet emerged. Jia Morant fell into the “gun door” twice. Trey-Yang led the team failed to go further. Zion Williamson was troubled by injuries.
For NBA, it is certainly a good thing for the development of its international market for many international stars to shine in NBA, but NBA still needs a super star to “town court” in American market “, and this star can only be James for the time being. From the perspective of NBA, James’s retirement is not what they want to see.
Thirdly, with James’s influence and topic needs, NBA needs him to come to a season of “retirement tour”. A reporter from foreign media Bleacher Report said that before he officially left NBA, James was worthy of a retired tour like Kobe.
Before James, Kobe and Wade both started a grand “retirement tour” in the last season “. The NBA historical scoring king retired after being swept out with a score of 0-4. I’m afraid James himself may not be able to accept this ending. On the contrary, James finished “Last Dance” in major away games gracefully in the Last season, which was more in line with his identity and choice.
In the view of big sports business, more importantly, James is likely to achieve a feat-becoming a shareholder of an NBA team as an active player.
Previously, the labor agreement stipulated that active players could not own shares in NBA teams, which was rewritten under the new labor agreement reached last month. The new labor agreement will be implemented from the 2023-24 season, one of which stipulates that active players can invest in NBA and WNBA teams.
During NBA All-Star this season, James reiterated his idea that he really hopes to have an NBA team in the future. Now that the obstacles have been removed, if James can accomplish this “feat”, I believe it will also add to his career.
Therefore, his competitive state is still online and his commercial influence has not faded. If James really chooses to retire at this moment, from the perspective of “business”, in order to realize the desire of greater benefits, it will also be empty.