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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORS

June 8, 2018

LeBron James

Cleveland, Ohio: Game Four

Warriors - 108, Cavaliers - 85

Q. LeBron, we're just learning about your hand injury, and we can obviously see the brace. Can you take us through what happened, and if it caused you any problems over the final three games?
LEBRON JAMES: What happened? Self-inflicted, postgame after Game 1. Very emotional. For a lot of different reasons, understanding how important a Game 1 is on the road for our ballclub, what would that have done for us, the way we played, the calls that were made throughout the course of that game.

I had emotions on the game was taken away from us. I had emotions of you just don't get an opportunity like this on the road versus Golden State to be able to get a Game 1, and I let the emotions get the best of me. Pretty much played the last three games with a broken hand, so that's what it is.

Q. I recognize The Finals just ended, but I know you're ready for these questions. Do you feel like you've played your last game for the Cavs?
LEBRON JAMES: I mean, I have no idea at this point. The one thing that I've always done is considered, obviously, my family. Understanding especially where my boys are at this point in their age. They were a lot younger the last time I made a decision like this four years ago. I've got a teenage boy, a pre-teen and a little girl that wasn't around as well.

So sitting down and considering everything, my family is a huge part of whatever I'll decide to do in my career, and it will continue to be that. So I don't have an answer for you right now as far as that.

Q. How do you want this season to be remembered, given guys in their 15th year don't do this at all. How do you want this year to be remembered?
LEBRON JAMES: For me personally?

Q. Yes.
LEBRON JAMES: I have no idea. That's for you guys to kind of figure out how you want to characterize my 15th season. It's definitely been a whirlwind. There's been ups and downs. It's been good, it's been bad.

For me, I just try to be consistent throughout the course of the season. Be the leader I know I can be for this ballclub, for this franchise every night, no matter what was going on from the outside or the inside, and be reliable every single day. Showing up to work every single day. Putting in the work and grinding every single day.

I have no idea how the story will be talked about of my season, but, I know I punched the clock in every single day. That's for me to understand that, and I'm okay with that.

Q. You've gone through this dance that's coming this summer. You've gone through this a few times. Do you anticipate this just because of, like you said, the family and your kid's going into high school and your age and all those things, do you anticipate this summer being the toughest as far as deciding what the right path for you is?
LEBRON JAMES: No, I feel like '10 was the toughest.

Q. LeBron, how would you characterize these playoffs for you?
LEBRON JAMES: For me personally?

Q. And the team.
LEBRON JAMES: And the team. I wondered if we could hit a switch some way, somehow, just because the course of the regular season it was just like, I don't know. You guys ask me a lot, our beat writers kind of ask us throughout the whole season, and then we made the trades. And right before the playoffs, a couple weeks before the playoffs: Do you feel like your team is ready for the postseason. I didn't know. It was just the unknown.

I mean, our season was kind of the unknown. I wondered if we could hit a switch in the postseason. I figured if I stayed laser sharp, if I came in with the right mentality, if I came in with the right mindset, that I could help fast-track this throughout a lot of the games in the postseason because of my experience and because of some of the other guys that experienced a lot of games. I was able to do that. We were able to do that. I mean, I don't know.

I think it's never a success in the postseason when you lose, not for me. I have no idea.

But for me personally, like I said, being reliable to my teammates, being able to play the game at a high level with as many games and as many miles as I have on my body and put together a run like I had in the postseason, it's something that I can kind of remember. The ending is obviously still fresh and still new, and you never want to lose, especially in this fashion, being a competitor. But it is what it is. Like I said, I punch my clock every day.

Q. I know you have no way to know yet whether your time here is over or not, but I'm wondering what playing with the word Cleveland across your chest has meant to you for this second run?
LEBRON JAMES: Well, I mean, at the end of the day, I came back because I felt like I had some unfinished business. To be able to be a part of a championship team two years ago with the team that we had and in the fashion that we had is something I will always remember. Honestly, I think we'll all remember that. It ended a drought for Cleveland of 50-plus years, so I think we'll all remember that in sports history.

When you have a goal, I think any individual, anybody, male, female, whatever the case may be, when you have a goal and you seek that goal out and you dream about that dream, and you put everything, and you care to -- you guys like this brace, huh (laughing)? You guys like this cast, huh? You want me to sit it right here for you (laughing)?

I don't even know where I was. I'm sorry. Next question. I'm sorry.

Q. In 2010 you basically were part of a team starting from scratch in 2014, same process, and then four months ago you were able to get to The Finals. If you had to do that again in your career, basically start a team from scratch, what have you learned from this year that you're a different team in February from what you're playing with in The Finals?
LEBRON JAMES: Well, it's definitely not the most comfortable thing to start a team from scratch, because the most important is health, because you need to build chemistry so fast and camaraderie so fast on the floor. And if you have multiple injuries or you have multiple bodies out, when you're starting fresh, it's too hard.

I think with this season, that's what you kind of saw. The difference between this season and the difference between my first year in Miami, we didn't have many injuries at all. And we were definitely fresh together. But myself and D-Wade and Bosh, you know, UD (Udonis Haslem), Mike Miller had a few injuries, but (Mario) Chalmers was available, and pretty much our team, we were pretty solid as far as being injury -- not being injury-prone.

Obviously, my first year back here we were headed in the right direct, and then we hit the postseason. Kev had a separated shoulder, and then Kyrie goes down in the first, second possession of overtime of Game 1 in The Finals.

So, I mean, that's just huge. So being a part of the start-fresh mode is something that you definitely don't want to be a part of. It has its pros and it definitely has its cons.

Q. When you tell Rachel you came back because you had unfinished business, does one championship finish that business?
LEBRON JAMES: I mean, that's a trick question at the end of the day, and I'm not falling for that.

Q. It's not a trick.
LEBRON JAMES: Yes, it is. I mean, for me, I still have so much to give to the game. Like I said, when you have a goal and you're able to accomplish that goal, it actually -- for me personally, it made me even more hungry to continue to try to win championships, and I still want to be in championship mode. I think I've shown this year why I will still continue to be in championship mode.

Q. When you came back in '14 and we did the thing at InfoCision, understanding that things could change in four years, but you said you don't plan on going anywhere. You can't go through this again. What did you mean by that and what's this process like? This free agency process of having to make a decision? Can you just take us through and shed some light on what that process is like?
LEBRON JAMES: Well, I mean, I'm not going to take you throughout the whole process. That's not fun. But at the end of the day, like I said, when I decide what I'm going to do with my future, my family and the folks that have been with me for the last, you know, 20 years, pretty much, will have a say-so. Then it ultimately will come down to me, and so we'll see what happens.

Q. When you made the move in 2010, obviously you had certain goals and things in mind that made you -- pushed you toward that decision, similar to 2014. Are the decisions or the thought process, priorities, different at age 33, 15 years in than they would have been at those other junctures?
LEBRON JAMES: No, I don't think so. I made the move in 2010 to be able to play with talented players, cerebral players that you could see things that happen before they happened on the floor, and your teammate can do the same throughout the course of a season, throughout the course of a game, throughout the course of a playoffs, throughout the course of a Finals.

So when you feel like you're really good at your craft, I think it's always great to be able to be around other great minds as well and other great ballplayers, in my instance, and other great just, I think, studies of the game itself.

That's never changed. Even when I came here in '14, I wanted to try to surround myself and surround this franchise with great minds and guys that actually think outside the box of the game and not just go out and play it.

Q. LeBron, whatever you decide this summer, how likely is it that down the road you would want to actually own the Cavs and be the guy in charge here?
LEBRON JAMES: Well, that top athlete money-per-year thing came out last week and I was sixth, so I'm in no way, shape and form putting myself in a position right now to own a team. I think Floyd (Mayweather) was 1 at like 252. Obviously, I don't have a boxing hand. So boxing won't be the sport I'll be going to. I don't know.

At the end of the day, for me, staying around the game, being around the game will be something I'll probably do for the rest of my life, either while I'm playing for this later stage of my career, advising people in the NBA or whatever the case may be. I've got two boys that play the game as well. So I don't know. I can't predict the future on ownership and things of that nature.

But I have a lot of knowledge of the game. I understand talent. I know talent. I know the right questions to ask certain guys and see if they're smart enough to actually think the game as well. So we'll see what happens.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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