LeBron James has decided to part ways with the Los Angeles Lakers after eight seasons, announcing he will sign a two-year minimum contract with the Philadelphia 76ers as the final stop of his illustrious career.
James never took that type of discount with the Lakers and many wondered if it was something he considered this offseason. He made it clear that he wants to compete for championships and may have been able to do that in L.A. with the roster upgrades they made this offseason around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
It appears returning to the Lakers was something James never really considered though and part of the reason for that is he believed they were ready to move on, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
People close to James believed the Lakers were ready to move on from the 22-time All-Star and were never serious about re-signing him despite president of basketball operations and GM Rob Pelinka stating the contrary during an end-of-season news conference after L.A. was swept in the second round by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
When the Lakers acquired Doncic in 2025, the franchise clearly made building around him and his timeline their priority instead of James.
Considering James only has a couple of years left in his career, it’s understandable why he felt slighted and ultimately decided to finish his career elsewhere. While breakups can often be ugly in the NBA, it seems that James and the Lakers had more of an amicable split where both sides just knew it was time to move on.
What Rob Pelinka said about LeBron James at start of offseason
As was alluded to, Rob Pelinka spoke about James’ future at the beginning of the offseason and seemed to make it clear that the Lakers wanted the 41-year-old back.
“I think we’ve talked before, the first thing we want to do in terms of LeBron and his future is just give him absolute respect to choose his story with his family in terms of how many years he’s gonna continue to play,” Pelinka said. “He’s earned that right, and he’s the best one to talk about that in terms of how many years he’d like to play. We’ve been very intentional this summer in terms of the pieces we add with Luka and LeBron, once LeBron opted in, making sure that they have the necessary pieces around them to be on a really competitive, strong team. And we built into that and for that. In terms of the future, again, with what I started with, first things first would be for him to be able to make a decision he wants to in terms of how long he wants to play. We’re gonna continue to honor and respect that and let him speak on that… I think I’ve said before in a previous question, but we would love if LeBron’s story would be to retire as a Laker. That would be a positive story.”
James obviously did not take Pelinka’s words at face value when he decided where he wants to end his career, and all of the Lakers’ actions made it clear that Doncic was their priority.
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