LeBron James says he will consider retirement this offseason

LOS ANGELES — LeBron James made his way down the ramp to exit the arena Monday night, having just completed his 20th NBA season with an unceremonious sweep out of the playoffs, not knowing if it would be the last time he would make that walk as an active player.

James told ESPN he will consider retirement this offseason.

After scoring 40 points and playing all but four seconds of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 113-111 Game 4 loss to the Denver Nuggets — with his last-second floater to try to force overtime being blocked at the buzzer — James ended his news conference by telling reporters, “Going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”

Following the news conference, ESPN asked James to elaborate on his statement.

When you say you got to think about stuff, what thread should we be pulling on that?

“If I want to continue to play,” James said.

As in next year?

“Yeah.”

You would walk away?

“I got to think about it.”

The 38-year-old James wrapped up his campaign by leading the No. 7-seeded Lakers all the way to the Western Conference finals.

He played in all 17 of L.A.’s postseason games — including the play-in win over the Minnesota Timberwolves — while still managing a right foot injury that caused him to miss a month straight late in the regular season because of a torn tendon.

James said he heard a pop when he injured his foot against the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 26. He consulted a cadre of medical professionals, several of whom recommended surgery, before finding a doctor he described as “the LeBron James of feet” and was assured he could rehabilitate the injury and return to the court without a procedure.

When asked Monday if surgery could be an option this summer, James told ESPN, “I’m going to get an MRI on it and see how the tendon either healed or not healed and go from there. We’ll see what happens.”

While James admitted that his performance was affected by his foot after he returned, he did not consider shutting down his season early, as was the case last season, when he missed the final five games because of a lingering ankle injury, and in 2018-19, when he was absent for the final six because of a groin strain that hadn’t fully healed.

“I knew I could get to the finish line,” James told ESPN. “Obviously, I knew I had to deal with it and deal with the pain or deal with not being able to be myself before the injury, but there was nothing that made me feel like I couldn’t get to the finish line.”

James was brilliant in Game 4 against Denver, setting a new personal best for points in a half in a playoff game by lighting the Nuggets up for 31 points on 11-for-13 shooting by halftime while playing in the 282nd playoff game of his career.

While he finished with nearly twice as many points as his next closest teammate (Anthony Davis scored 21), James ultimately came up short twice trying to tie the game down the stretch — first missing a fadeaway with…