Леброн Жэймсийн зун эргэн ирлээ

Places, everyone. Places. It’s time to reprise our roles in the “Summer of LeBron.” The blockbuster sequel that offers plenty of conflict, but after all these decades, no resolution.

Does our hero want to win more rings than Jordan, so that the end credits will list him as the undisputed G.O.A.T.? Or does he just want to ride off into the sunset with his Olympic co-star, Stephen Curry? Wait, wasn’t the original happy ending supposed to have our protagonist pairing up with his son? Ugh. Can’t keep up with all these rewrites.

Because LeBron James, the marvel and meta human of the sports world over the last 23 years, has returned once again as the NBA’s biggest free agent. It’s the latest twist in a narrative that premiered way back in 2010, followed by sequels in 2014 and 2018. However, four years ago, James hinted that this would be the extended director’s cut.

In an episode of one of his pet projects, “Uninterrupted: The Shop,” he chopped it up with Quinta Brunson, Donald “Childish Gambino” Glover and J Balvin, as well as Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. To his celebrity friends, James colorfully explained why he wouldn’t be hanging it up soon: “I’m trying to squeeze as much juice out of this motherf—ing orange that I can, while I can.” He also revealed how he views his time in the NBA.

“I feel like every season for me is just like a movie, every season is like a movie, and I’m, like, living in it. I’m the star in the movie. Like, it feels dope as s—,” James said. “I feel like Batman, Black Panther, all them.”

For a man who thinks in terms of cinema and possesses main character energy in his single player game, he is in the rarest of fourth acts. Even so, this movie’s dragging on. The plot’s just a bit too trite. Almost as though the writer’s room gave up on creating something new and innovative, and simply remixed what worked the last time. And the time before that. And, the time before that. This latest “Summer of LeBron” feels like Fast & Furious 24. The whole gang is back, ready to play their parts in this never-ending novella.

That means you, insiders and analysts. Blast the words from sources with agendas, and string out this story for as long as possible. Go forth and report morsels of misdirection — this isn’t about money, it’s about happiness! — and tweet out the most mundane minutiae imaginable — he’s currently in Ohio, and he’s working out! Play along in this guessing game because it fills holes in the A-block, whole segments on sports talk radio and paragraphs of copy in July, typically a dead period in the landscape of American sports. Yours is a character that hasn’t developed much at all since the first flick, but this script — the tale of a man inhaling all the air out of the room, from his entire league, and a media ecosystem providing the oxygen — requires you.

Just as much as it needs you, too, stans and haters. Depart to your respective camps and stand in as bit players, flooding the background with effusive praise about LeBron’s longevity, or constant noise that he’s still no M.J. Boast that he has scored more points, played more games and earned more All-NBA selections than anyone else in NBA history, or … simply rehearse how he’s still no M.J. It doesn’t matter that the G.O.A.T. debate feels stale and degrades one entirely different era against another, this new “SOL” needs tension.

Watered down and superficial tension. Although, if examined with a critic’s eye, real friction does exist in LeBron’s final act. It just demands more depth than a hot take.

If indeed James’s career is a movie, then what exactly was the plot of his last eight years in Los Angeles? Sometimes it felt as exciting as witnessing one long chase scene, with James tracking down Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the scoring list, Robert Parish and his regular-season games record, and every other legend who had taken up space on the all-time lists. Other times, it was as uncomfortable as watching an extreme close-up of this generation’s greatest hooper. However, the tight frame didn’t create intimacy between the star and his audience; it simply showed LeBron the businessman. LeBron produced movies, LeBron became the game’s first active billionaire, LeBron acquired a stake in a professional pickleball team. LeBron maximized his profit while minimizing previous priorities.

He handed off his “More Than A Vote” initiative ahead of an election and drew criticism from Abdul-Jabbar by retweeting a meme comparing COVID-19 to the everyday flu. Although earlier in his career, James had established and promoted himself as a megaphone for both the disenfranchised communities and athletes alike. In L.A., James traded his concern for the betterment of social justice for his bottom line. And, of course, for all his whims on the basketball court to come true.

He wanted to play with his friend and Klutch Sports teammate Anthony Davis, and that union produced a championship, his fourth overall with his third franchise, in the controlled environment of the 2020 bubble. He wanted to play with Russell Westbrook, and that pairing with a ball-dominant point guard ended predictably.

He also wanted the Lakers to hire his podcast partner, JJ Redick, a move that knifed then-head coach Darvin Ham out the door. He wanted the Lakers to draft his oldest son, Bronny James, an unapologetic flex for any father who doesn’t care about optics.

His last eight years in L.A., a stint that’s lasted even longer than those separate runs in Cleveland and Miami, do not fit within a binary space of success or bust. Rather, somewhere in between, as James has valiantly fought his greatest foe, Father Time, while treating La La Land as a cushy platform where he could rack up the records and pad his own legacy.

Now, the movie continues, and that’s where you come back in, LeBron. This storyline that’s even making Vin Diesel wonder what’s possibly left to do needs you. (Perhaps LeBron in a souped-up spaceship launching from the depths of Lake Erie and racing across the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge?) The scenes will play out this fall, the King without a conclusion on a new (or old) team. We’ll all be watching, even if it’s just a remake that hits all the familiar notes.