For the first time in his career, LeBron James is playing on the final year of his contract with no player or team option for next season. And now in his 23rd NBA season, many wonder if his eighth season with the Los Angeles Lakers will be his last with the franchise and in his career overall.
The fact that LeBron’s agent Rich Paul spoke prior to the start of the season about evaluating what is best for the superstar and that there were other rumors about him not being satisfied with the Lakers’ roster only led to many believing he could potentially be traded, or go elsewhere as a free agent next summer.
For his part, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has said that he wants James to retire as a Laker and that is still possible. But according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, many around the league expect this to be LeBron’s final season with the purple and gold whether or not he decides to retire:
While general manager Rob Pelinka said before the season that he’d like James to retire with the Lakers, the buzz around the NBA is that this will be his final season in Los Angeles (whether he decides to continue playing or call it a career).
Soon to be 41 years old, in his 23rd NBA season and having accomplished basically everything there is to do in his career, LeBron can undoubtedly retire and will go down to many as the greatest basketball player of all-time. But if he does want to continue playing beyond this season, it will be very interesting to see whether or not he would return to the Lakers.
Pelinka and the Lakers would surely love to see James end his career with the team and this franchise is no stranger to handling superstars at the end of their careers. But the Lakers are also looking ahead and want to keep their salary cap clean for the 2027 offseason so they would almost definitely prefer to not have any extra salaries past next year.
This will be one of the biggest stories to follow throughout the remainder of this year and into the offseason. LeBron has brought this franchise a championship and will undoubtedly see his jersey in the rafters of the Crypto.com Arena, but this very well could be his final season in L.A.
Lakers’ LeBron James attirbutes foot injury to old age
As he has gotten older LeBron James has had to deal with many different minor injuries, including a foot issue that has been bothering him for a couple seasons now. And the Lakers’ superstar believes these are simply a case of old age.
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