Ten summers ago, you could stand on just about any porch in Bellefontaine on a warm June night and hear it — that roar rolling out of living rooms and garages from Indian Lake to DeGraff when Kyrie's shot dropped and the Cavaliers finished off Golden State in Game 7. Grown men cried in their driveways. Kids who'd never seen an Ohio team win anything slept in wine-and-gold jerseys. LeBron James, the kid from Akron, had kept his promise.

Now, a decade later, Logan County is watching the same man make what may be the final decision of a basketball life unlike any other. On June 30, James informed the Los Angeles Lakers through his agent, Rich Paul, that after eight seasons and the 2020 championship, he will play elsewhere in 2026-27 — his 24th NBA season, and by nearly every account around the league, likely his last.

At 41, James is not limping to the finish. He made the All-Star team again last season, averaging 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds while shooting better than 51 percent from the floor, even after a bout of sciatica cost him the season's first month and snapped his record 21-year All-NBA streak. He remains the league's all-time leader in points, minutes, games and seasons played. Whoever signs him is not buying a farewell tour. They are buying a player who can still tilt a playoff series.

The suitors read like a league map. Miami, his old home, just landed Giannis Antetokounmpo in a blockbuster and can offer a reunion with the franchise where he won his first two titles. Philadelphia, fresh off acquiring Jaylen Brown to pair with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, reached out the moment that trade was done and is viewed by some around the league as a genuine favorite. Golden State has explored the once-unthinkable — LeBron and Stephen Curry in the same backcourt — after Draymond Green declined his player option to create flexibility. Minnesota is pitching Anthony Edwards, veteran leadership and the chance to deliver a franchise its first championship. Paul has even name-dropped the Knicks and Celtics.

And then there is Cleveland.

The Cavaliers are no charity case waiting on a savior. They pushed to the Eastern Conference finals this spring behind Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen before running into the Knicks. James Harden, acquired at the trade deadline, declined his player option with every intention of re-signing long term. Drop a 41-year-old LeBron into that lineup and Cleveland arguably becomes the biggest threat in the East.

On Tuesday, the franchise got its loudest commitment yet. Mitchell agreed to a four-year, $273 million maximum extension on the very first day he was eligible to sign one — passing up the chance to wait a year for a five-year supermax worth roughly $80 million more. The deal includes a player option for 2030-31 and a full trade kicker, and its average annual value of just over $68 million is, for the moment, an NBA record. The seven-time All-Star, who averaged 27.9 points last season and drew MVP votes, wasn't coy about why he stayed. “I love it here … We have unfinished business,” Mitchell said after Cleveland's conference finals exit in May. Just as important for the homecoming watch: sources say Mitchell would embrace a James reunion, meaning the franchise cornerstone and the franchise legend are pulling in the same direction.

The front office is acting like it believes the storybook ending is on the table. Reports out of Cleveland say the Cavs are shopping guards Max Strus and Dennis Schröder to clear enough room to pay James in the neighborhood of $15 million — real money, not the veteran's-minimum courtesy offer he has reportedly been skeptical of. Assistant general manager Brandon Weems happens to be one of James' closest friends dating back to their Akron days, a connection Paul himself has flagged as an X-factor. Mitchell is reportedly on board. And around the league, executives from rival suitors have privately admitted the same fear: it's Cleveland's race to lose.

James hasn't exactly hosed down the speculation. He was spotted in Ohio last week — first at a golf course, then wearing a St. Vincent-St. Mary High School T-shirt, his alma mater — with old high school teammates, Weems among them. For a man who has spent two decades understanding exactly what every public gesture means, that shirt was not an accident of laundry day.

Logan County sits a little over two hours from Rocket Arena — close enough that a farewell season in Cleveland would mean local families actually getting seats, school buses making the run up I-71, and one more winter of Friday-night arguments at Bellefontaine lunch counters about whether he's better than Jordan. (He's from Ohio. Around here, the argument is settled.) James arrived in Cleveland as an 18-year-old in 2003 and delivered the franchise's only championship in 2016. He has said more than once over the years that he pictured finishing his career where it started.

Nothing is decided. As of press time, no announcement had been made, and Miami and Philadelphia remain serious threats. But for the first time since 2018, the door to a homecoming is wide open, the Cavaliers are clearing furniture to hold it, and the kid from Akron is back in Ohio wearing his high school colors. Logan County has seen this movie before. The ending was pretty good.