Cavs’ James doesn’t yearn for farewell tour

Akron Beacon Journal

TORONTO

LeBron James is starting to feel his basketball mortality.

Turning 31 on Dec. 30, the Cavaliers star and four-time MVP is in his 13th year in the NBA. He’s become one of the league’s elder statesmen and embraces the role of mentor to three generations of stars who have followed him.

On Friday, James said there is no timetable for how many more years he will play. But he was thinking about that even before Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour stopped at Quicken Loans Arena last Wednesday, when the 37-year-old Lakers legend in his 20th season said goodbye.

Tonight at Air Canada Center, James will become the sixth player to start 12 All-Star Games, joining Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and Bob Cousy.

The night surely will be all about Bryant, and for James that may stir even more feelings about how much longer his seemingly impervious body can take the grind of an 82-game season and a postseason that he always hopes will stretch into mid-June.

Thoughts of retirement, or at least public acknowledgement, surfaced on Nov. 2 when James passed 25,000 career points. He said that night he wouldn’t hang on too long, wouldn’t resort to being a vagabond at the end.

“All the respective greats try to play at the highest level they can,” James said then. “I’m going to give it my all obviously until I can’t. One thing I won’t be, I don’t ever believe or think that I’ll be an embarrassment to my fans or my family.”

During All-Star interviews, James said he isn’t sure he wants a farewell tour.

“Um, I don’t know. I don’t know if I would want that,” he said at the Sheraton Centre Toronto. “I’m not quite sure when I would decide. Sometimes, I don’t know, you look at retirement almost like proposing to your girlfriend. How did you know it’s the right time? You don’t know it’s the right time.”

When it was suggested that he might enjoy being cheered on the road at every stop, he said, “That would be something totally different.”

Asked if he would feed off that, James said, “I don’t know. I don’t know if I want that.

“I know when it’s almost over, I’ll have to sit down with my family and see if they want to go through that.”

It seems like time has flown by since the ping pong balls bounced the Cavs’ way and the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School star was selected first overall in 2003. At least most of the time, anyway.

“It surprises me every day. I look at the game notes before the game and it says year 13, I’m like, ’Wow, where has the time gone?’ ” James said. “But then I go home and see I’ve got an 11-year-old boy and I’m like, ’OK, there it is.’ It makes sense.”

Looking at his career averages at the All-Star break, James’ numbers are down in all but two categories. His 7.1 rebounds per game equals his career mark, his .504 field goal percentage betters his .497 career average.

Among the numbers in decline are points (25.0, 26.9 career), assists per game (6.5, 6.9), free throw percentage (.717, .744) and 3-point percentage (.277, .337).

The presence of the other two members of the Cavs’ Big Three — Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love — may skew some of those statistics. But many in the league expect James to adjust his game as the years march on.

“I don’t have a target at all. I’ve got so many great years left to play the game,” James said. “I definitely know that at some point we’re all going to have to come to an end.”