CLEVELAND – LeBron James reminds that he is “living in the moment” – which means staring at a 3-0 NBA Finals hole to the Golden State Warriors for the second consecutive season. Since signing Kevin Durant, the Warriors are 7-1 in Finals games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, with no end in sight.

LeBron was trying to say he hasn’t moved on to his pending free agency, although after practice here in advance of Friday’s Game 4, he waxed philosophically about the state of the two franchises, the arms race of NBA superteams and what it might actually take to beat these Warriors.

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A couple things were clear in his most expansive and introspective comments about the future yet.

First, LeBron will enter the summer believing he is still in his prime and wanting to compete for a championship, above all else. “I feel like I am in a great groove right now,” he said. At 33, he isn’t ready to be some elder statesman. He wants to win.

Second, while he may not exactly know how to put the puzzle together to get past Golden State, he isn’t taking the decision lightly.

LeBron James discusses his future Thursday at NBA Finals media availability. (AP) More

If you’re a Cleveland fan, none of it sounded promising for his return. If the Cavs want him, they need a plan, ASAP. If not, maybe it’s Houston or maybe it’s Philadelphia or maybe it’s the Los Angeles Lakers on a multiyear build.

“That’s the challenge in this league,” LeBron said. “I think every GM and every president and every coaching staff is trying to figure out how they can make up the right matchups to compete for a championship and win a championship.”

He’s done this twice before. Once when he left Cleveland with no titles in 2010, where he was drafted as an 18-year-old high schooler seven years before. Then he did it again when he left Miami after winning two championships and returned to Cleveland, where he won one more, in 2016 against the Warriors.

Consider the past his prologue.

“I felt like my first stint here, I just didn’t have the level of talent to compete versus the best teams in the NBA, let alone just Boston,” LeBron said of the pre-2010 season. “When you looked at [Rajon] Rondo and [Kevin Garnett] and Paul [Pierce] and Ray [Allen], you knew they were great basketball players. But not only great basketball players, you could see their minds were in it, too, when you were playing them. Rondo was calling out sets every time you come down. It was like, ‘OK, this is bigger than basketball.’

“So not only do you have to have the talent, you have to have the minds as well,” LeBron said.

Paging J.R. Smith.

“I knew that my talent level here in Cleveland couldn’t succeed getting past a Boston, getting past the San Antonios of the league or whatever the case may be,” LeBron continued. “I played with [Dwyane Wade], I played with [Chris] Bosh in the Olympics. I knew their minds. I knew how they thought the game, more than just playing the game. Obviously, we all knew their talent, but I knew their minds as well. So, I linked up with them. We went to Miami. Got some other great minds. And guys that were talents. You build that talent. That’s what you want to try to do.

“Then you come here,” LeBron said. “I knew Kyrie [Irving], having the talent, I wanted to try to build his mind up to fast-track his mind because I felt like in order to win, you’ve got to have talent, but you’ve got to be very cerebral, too.

“So, we come back here and we get the minds and we build a championship team. And then Golden State, because of Steph’s injuries early on in his career and his contract situation [which was low for a superstar], and then them drafting Draymond [Green] and drafting Klay [Thompson], and them being under the contracts they were in, allowed their franchise to go out to get K.D.

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