[McMenamin] “Multiple team and league sources told ESPN the Cavaliers would gladly welcome James back this summer if he wanted to return to Cleveland for his 24th NBA season and third stint with the team.”
JAMES AND THE CAVS don’t have a championship to show for 2017-18, and the chaos of the season was felt by everyone.
James is now in his eighth season with the Lakers – his longest uninterrupted stint with a team in his career – but his future in Los Angeles remains uncertain, with his contract set to expire at the end of the campaign and the franchise set to move forward with Luka Doncic as its star of the present and the future.
Multiple team and league sources told ESPN the Cavaliers would gladly welcome James back this summer if he wanted to return to Cleveland for his 24th NBA season and third stint with the team.
There’s no telling the ride the Lakers could still go on this spring, especially if James can find that cape to put back on. While James is eight years older, he has shown a similar commitment to this season’s Lakers team, sources said. He missed the first 14 games because of sciatica. But James stopped drinking alcohol during his rehab, and he has slimmed down considerably, hoping to take pressure off his back and joints and to “keep up with the young guys,” he said.
“We weren’t supposed to make it that far,” Love said of those 2017-18 Cavs. “I mean, you look at the makeup of that team and the inexperience, even more so. It wasn’t a team that really had enough of a supporting cast to make it to that level.
“But because LeBron took us there and put us on his shoulders, we were able to get to that point.”
And maybe, here in 2026, his presence in Cleveland on Wednesday can give both teams a taste of that 2017-18 experience.
“It’s going to be a circus, and it is just a regular-season game,” a Cavs source told ESPN. “But when he comes, it feels like a Finals game.”