CLEVELAND — The arena’s name might have changed, the locker room in which he slipped on his uniform might have been down the hall and the signature headband look might have been replaced by a now easily identifiable graying beard, but LeBron James was playing basketball in Cleveland on Saturday night and winning.
Same as it ever was.
The Los Angeles Lakers beat the host Cavaliers 121-115 to improve to 10-7 on the season.
While it wasn’t quite a vintage James performance — he scored 22 points on 8-of-23 shooting, including 1-of-9 from 3 — he sealed the victory with two consecutive scores with under two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, getting a layup and a dunk to push L.A.’s lead from one to five.
And just like James kept coming at his former team, the 21-year NBA veteran keeps achieving in his career. So much so, in fact, that his charitable foundation opened up a museum — LeBron James’ Home Court — on Saturday morning in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, to chronicle all the feats he continues to be responsible for.
«Spent 11 years here and being able to come back after my Miami stint and win a championship here for this franchise, for this city, I think it was a 52-year Lakers’ LeBron James reflects on Cavs days — ‘It’s just special’ drought or something like that in the city of Cleveland for any sports team, I think that was just something that I will never forget no matter how old I get,» James said. «I’ll always remember that moment.»
The Cavs organization did its part in treating James like an old friend rather than the night’s opponent. Cleveland’s mascot, Moondog, approached the Lakers’ huddle to greet James with a fist pound when he was announced in the starting lineup. During a first-quarter timeout, the videoboard played a lengthy tribute to James’ climb to the top of the NBA’s all-time scoring list, with many in the 19,432 sellout crowd standing up to cheer the 38-year-old star when it was finished.
«Stepping back on this floor is always a pretty cool feeling, looking up there and pretty much being a part of all of the banners in this arena,» James said. «And the No. 1 banner, the one that sits in the middle, was that ’16 championship, so that’s pretty cool.»
It has been seven years since James led the Cavs to the first comeback from a 3-1 deficit in NBA Finals history to win it all. Cleveland upset the Golden State Warriors, who were coming off a record-breaking 73-9 regular-season record and featured the first unanimous MVP in league history in Stephen Curry.
James has hardly slowed down. He came into the night shooting a career-best 57.8% from the field, and he continues to play major minutes while L.A. deals with early-season injuries. As he admitted Saturday, «We built this roster for myself and [Anthony Davis] to not to carry a huge load,» because James wants to get this group moving in the right direction as best he can.
L.A.’s team effort against the Cavs was evidence that it might be able to sustain this success if and when James takes his foot off the gas to try to preserve some energy for another postseason run. The Lakers racked up 34 assists on 47 made field goals on Saturday, and Davis led seven double-digit scorers for Los Angeles with a season-high 32 points.
But there’s still 65 games for the Lakers to figure all that out. They make just one trip a season to Cleveland, meaning there could be only a couple of more games left at his old stomping grounds in James’ career — barring a Lakers-Cavs matchup in the Finals before he hangs it up.
«It’s just special,» James said. «It’s very special to be a kid from Akron. I grew up 30 miles south of here and to be able to be drafted here and spend my first seven years here and do some special things that the franchise had never seen. And when I was drafted, I said I wanted to light this place up like Vegas. So I feel like I did a decent job of doing that when I was here for my 11 years.»
Those 11 years he suited up for the Cavs along with the rest of James’ journey will be commemorated for years to come at his new museum. General admission is $23, with the proceeds from ticket sales funding a training program for students, parents and educators that are a part of his I Promise School, located nearby in Akron. The museum features artifacts from his upbringing, including the oversize white suit he wore on draft night and game-worn sneakers from some of his biggest games. It is curated by his mother, Gloria James.
«I used to get on my mom a lot about saving everything since I was like started first playing sports,» James said. «And she kind of threw it back in my face when the stuff was being prepared down at the museum, because a lot of the stuff in there is because of the stuff that she saved. And that’s pretty cool.»
There will be more stat sheets for his mom to file away, more game balls to archive before he calls it quit, more clutch buckets like the ones he scored to put away the Cavs on Saturday night.
But for the guy who has spent the past two decades going by his personal motto to «strive for greatness,» he allowed himself an evening at least to pause for reflection.
«I think it’s pretty cool that I’ve been able to do some things in my life to be able to bring back to my community, continue to highlight my community and give my community a place where people want to visit, want to see and want to be proud of it,» James said. «And I am. I’m definitely proud of the fact that my foundation has been able to do some great things, and this is just one of the things that we can all be proud of, for sure, in my hometown.»