Los Angeles Lakers Media Day signals the start of the upcoming 2025-26 season, a historic one for LeBron James who will be playing for a league-record 23rd season.
James spent the offseason recovering from a knee injury he sustained in the playoffs last year, but by all accounts is healthy and ready for another regular season.
While LeBron looked happy at Media Day, there has been a lot of speculation about his future in Los Angeles after he opted into his player option for the 2025-26 season. This will be the first time James is playing on an expiring deal and is a precarious position to be in for the superstar.
However, he emphasized that his contact status won’t factor into his play this season, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“It will have no impact,” James told ESPN. “I’m super excited about the challenges and the excitement of our team. We added some new guys. We got another year under our belt with our coaching staff from last year. Got a full year with Luka [Doncic] and another year with the guys that I’ve been with. So super excited about that.
“And I’m not worried about contracts at this point in my career. That doesn’t bother me at all. Super humbled to even have it, have a contract still and be able to play the game that I love still at this part of my career and take full advantage of it.”
James is due $52.6 million for the 2025-26 campaign and he and his agent Rich Paul have maintained that his focus is still to win a championship with the Lakers.
Any concerns that James may not be as invested this year due to his contract situation should be put to bed given what’s at stake this late into his career. LeBron gets the opportunity to compete for a title next to a motivated Luka Doncic plus a supporting case that looks improved on paper.
James himself isn’t worrying about his future and expressed a desire to not take his 23rd season in the NBA for granted, so it’ll be interesting to see how far he can take the purple and gold this year.
JJ Redick says LeBron James is in great spot mentally after summer conversations
Head coach JJ Redick and LeBron James have a close relationship and their first year together should be considered a success. Ahead of James’ Year 23, Redick said the Lakers star is in a great spot mentally after speaking over the summer.
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