Father Time, especially in athletics, remains undefeated, and regardless of how good a fight LeBron James put up against it, Sunday night might very well have been his final game at Madison Square Garden.
While there has been no official decision made yet on whether or not this will be his final season, Year 23 is at least providing moments for the 41-year-old superstar to wax poetic and reflect on what has been one of the most brilliant careers in NBA history.
“Everything,” James said when asked what it meant to play at Madison Square Garden. “It’s the mecca of basketball here in New York City. Obviously, it’s the Big Apple, being here at MSG, playing here. So many guys have walked this court, either from basketball to entertainment to actors and musicians. I mean, everything. It’s been a wide range of an importance of people to grace this floor, and I hope I have a little, small snippet of somebody that came through here.”
James scored 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting in the Lakers’ 112-100 loss to the Knicks on Sunday night to fall to 23-9 in his career at Madison Square Garden. He had averaged 28.2 points, 7.6 assists, and seven rebounds at the “World’s Most Famous Arena” prior to that.
“At the end of the day, everything has to come to an end,” James said. “No matter what it is, it’s going to be like, ‘I’ll never play again in Madison Square Garden’… At that point, does it matter? You’re going to always miss it. You’re going to miss the game in general… This one will always have a special place in the journey because it’s Madison Square Garden.”
The writing is undoubtedly on the wall, but it is not a blasphemous notion to suggest that James still has enough in the tank to play a bit longer. He is averaging 22.9 points with 6.1 assists and 5.8 rebounds in 31 games this season.
