James quickly removed his jersey as he exited the court into the tunnel.
I went crazy when I heard the Celts fans chanting "NY Knicks...NY Knicks". That was the coolest sh*t ever!
It was very weird how the Cavs basically stopped playing with under a minute left in the game. They were going to lose anyway but you rarely see a team call it quits like that unless its like a few seconds left.
I truly believe LJ is moving on but I'm not totally sold on NY just yet. He gives subtle indications that he will not return to CLE but isn't giving away anything as to where his next destination is.
There's actually an interesting report on ESPN about his future.
Trying To Figure Out LeBron's Future
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
BOSTON -- So which LeBron James do you want to believe?
The LeBron who said he hasn't given much thought to what he's going to do with his future?
Or the LeBron who said "my team has a game plan"?
Because James said both of those things after finally making his way to the interview room more than an hour after the Cavaliers' season came to a swift and stunning end with a 94-85 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
Myself, I'll go with the LeBron behind Curtain No. 2, and beyond that I'll only go so far as to say I believe he has played his final game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's been seven long years for James in Cleveland, and as Kevin Garnett pointed out, it's hurtful at times when you cannot get your youth back.
And the crossroads James now finds himself at is the one at which he chooses between staying in the state where he was born and raised, the state where he was loved like no other professional athlete Ohio had ever produced, or moving on to the next stage of his life, the stage where he breaks beyond the boundaries that have confined him to a Midwestern comfort zone and goes on to bigger and better things.
Chicago? Miami? New York?
Could be any one of those three, and whoever knows exactly what details Team James' game plan entails isn't yet spilling those beans.
Celtics fans certainly had fun letting James know their prediction, chanting "New York Knicks" whenever he stepped to the foul line on a night when his triple-double of 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists was buttressed by his nine turnovers.
James did not speak to the specifics, whether pro or con, of playing in any of those cities -- or even the possibility of remaining in Cleveland.
What he said he'd do is go into the summer with the proper mindset, something I asked him to define in the final question he took in his postgame news conference.
"It's all about winning for me, and I think the Cavs are committed to doing that," he said. "But at the same time I've given 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 what we get."
James also was asked what he could say to the people in Cleveland, and it was noteworthy that he used the past tense in saying "We had a great time together."
Great, at least, until they booed him Tuesday night in the disappearing act that'll go down as the LeBacle.
James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have already acknowledged they plan to speak together and go over the options they will be presented with in the biggest free-agency period in NBA history, and James' acknowledgement that he has a "game plan" is an indication that things may be farther along than most people realize.
The latest talk making the rounds regarding Chicago is that the Bulls could be the best fit because they already have a top-tier point guard in Derrick Rose and an athletic big man in Joakim Noah, plus they have a coaching vacancy that could conceivably end up being filled by John Calipari, who is extremely close to both Rose and James confidante William Wesley. The Bulls did make a head-scratcher of a trade when they gave away John Salmons and their No. 1 pick to Milwaukee at the trading deadline, but the deal gave them the flexibility to have max money available this summer. Yes, James would have to play the next several years in the shadow of Michael Jordan, but the generation that is as old or younger than James (25) has more vivid memories of Jordan as a Wizard, or as owner of the Bobcats, than they do of him winning six titles for the Bulls.
Miami is intriguing (aside from the obvious climate reasons) because Pat Riley has been throwing around talk of building a dynasty, and he already has one dynastic building block in Wade, who has indicated that his heart is in Miami and he would prefer to stay there. If the Heat can clear more cap space by moving Michael Beasley and/or Daequan Cook and James Jones before the draft, or in a trade that would be finalized July 8, they could afford to have James, Wade and a third stud, presumably a big man from the available free-agent threesome of Bosh, Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer.
The Knicks? Well, James is on record as saying New York is his favorite city, and Madison Square Garden is his favorite NBA arena to play in. If James is serious about becoming the world's first billionaire athlete, the opportunity to boost his earning potential on a global scale is greatest in the city that is home to Wall Street. Also, New York has cleared enough cap room to sign James, plus another max free agent, and still have a few million dollars left over.
You also can't completely discount the Nets, with Jay-Z (James' buddy) still a part-owner following the transfer of controlling ownership from Bruce Ratner to Mikhail Prokhorov. But that franchise is set to play the next two seasons in Newark, and it's hard to see the King serving time in purgatory before the Brooklyn arena is built.
So if it is truly a four-team race that includes the Cavs, we have to circle back to James' statement about a game plan.
He gave no clues to its details, but in acknowledging that it exists he sounded like a man with plans for bigger and better things than Cleveland has to offer. Remember, when he picked up his MVP trophy, he told the crowd he would always be loyal to Akron.
And on the night he may have played his last game for Cleveland, he certainly didn't sound like a man with a plan to be married to the Cavaliers forever. If that were part of the "game plan," he would have at least given Cavs fans a glimmer of hope.
"The world is his, whatever decision he's going to make," Garnett said.
But on this night, it was a world in which the city of Cleveland seemed like a very small point on a very big map.
As James said: "We had a great time together."
Had.
Past tense.
Spoken like a man for whom the good times ahead, if they ever occur, will happen elsewhere.