CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James' business partner Maverick Carter said James -- in the final year of his deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers -- won't start thinking about his next career step until about a week after the NBA season comes to an end.

And when that time comes, location won't play much of a role.

"These days it doesn't matter anymore," Carter said during an interview on The Rich Eisen Show early Wednesday morning when asked specifically about the importance of where James plays. "The Lakers and the Knicks have been bad. The Knicks for a very long time and the Lakers since Kobe (Bryant) kind of aged out of being the best player or one of the best players in the league and basketball is doing as great as ever with teams in Oklahoma City and Cleveland. These days it doesn't matter because you can be known and be a star from anywhere in the world. It doesn't actually matter.

"Could he sell a few more sneakers if he was in a gigantic market like Boston, Chicago, New York, or L.A.? Maybe. But not as much as if he wins. What matters the most is if he wins. When you win as an athlete that matters the most."

Eisen followed up specifically about Los Angeles, the place where James has been linked most often.

After all, SpringHill Entertainment, a company founded by James and Carter, one that has a growing presence in the entertainment industry, is located in Burbank. So if James, who owns a house in Los Angeles, wants to go in that direction when his NBA career starts winding down, doesn't playing there make perfect sense?

"I understand people keep saying that and thinking that. But the reason it doesn't make sense is because if he does play in L.A. or he plays on the moon he can only shoot movies for three months," Carter said. "It doesn't matter. Even if he played in L.A. and wanted to be in a movie, he can't shoot from basically September to June.

"He also could (take a meeting) from anywhere in the world. And we're doing fine without him living here and playing here. He has a home here in the off-season, lives in L.A. in the off-season, our company we have 10 shows in deals, two shows with Netflix, a show with HBO and none of them are starring him. He's just the E.P. (Executive Producer) on them running the company and founder of the company with me so the company doesn't need him to be here. If he wants to act in movies it doesn't matter because he only gets three months a year to do it anyway, no matter where he plays."

The chatter about James' future has already started and it will be a running storyline throughout the season.

He was asked multiple questions about it during Media Day, the day before training camp began, taking the same approach he always has.

"Obviously you guys know with me, any time I'm able to either be a free agent or my contract is ending, I'll approach that when the summer comes," James said. "I won't ever cheat my teammates or cheat the fans in a situation ... because I'm not going to give energy to something that I can handle in the summertime, when I should be focused on what I need to do on a day to day basis to help this franchise compete for a championship, because that's what the front office wants.

"I think that's what Koby (Altman) would want in the front office and I think that's what Dan (Gilbert) would want. If that wasn't the case then they wouldn't have made the deal that they made to bring in this group of talent and made the deals to get D-Rose here and get Jeff Green here and Jose Calderon and guys like that who have championship level talent. It's my obligation to go about it that way and when the summer comes, I will approach that."

Both times James has gone through free agency, in 2010 when he left Cleveland for Miami and 2014 when he returned, he has prioritized basketball while hunting for a spot that allows him to compete for NBA titles -- both of which boost his legacy.

But there's plenty of time before that. It's only the second month of the 2017-18 campaign and numerous questions hover over the reigning Eastern Conference champs. On Tuesday, they held a team meeting before practicing, airing out some of their early-season issues and going through film to make corrections.

How this season finishes and whether the Cavs can dethrone the Golden State Warriors will loom large when it comes to figuring out James' future. As Carter said, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

"He never starts thinking about it before the end of the season, Carter said. "Whenever their season ends and hopefully it's in June for his sake and the sake of his family because he goes crazy at home, usually a week after. Decompresses, lets it all calm down and then a week after. Sometimes he can take a little longer but at least a week after."