LeBron James wasn’t ready to make any decisions about his future in the painful moments immediately after his 22nd NBA season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round playoff exit.
“I don’t have the answer to that,” James said Wednesday night when asked how long he will continue to play. “Something I’ll sit down with my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it, and see what happens. Just have conversations with myself on how long I want to continue to play. I don’t know the answer to that right now, to be honest.”
The 40-year-old James has given no public indication he is thinking about retirement this summer, but Lakers fans will be holding their breath until the top scorer in NBA history makes his plans official.
James provided no hints after recording 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the Lakers’ 103-96 loss to Minnesota.
“It’s up to me if I’m going to continue to play, or how long I’m going to continue to play,” James said. “It’s ultimately up to me, so it has nothing to do with anybody else.”
Most observers think the four-time champion is planning to return for a 23rd season, which would break the NBA longevity record he currently shares with Vince Carter. He is also just 49 regular-season games behind Robert Parish, who holds the NBA record with 1,611 games played. James already holds the league record for career playoff games with 292.
But his seventh season with the Lakers is over after the Timberwolves’ 4-1 series victory. Los Angeles didn’t build a winning dynamic quickly enough to the midseason arrival of Luka Doncic in a seismic trade for Anthony Davis.
James’ Lakers have advanced in the postseason just once in the five years since their championship in the Florida bubble — but if James returns, he’s coming back to a completely reconfigured team built around his new partnership with Doncic.
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James and Doncic played only 21 games together after the deal, and it wasn’t enough to maximize their potential teamwork. Another full year together could raise their partnership to formidable levels, and James still seems intrigued by the prospect of playing a full year or more alongside the Slovenian superstar he has described as his favorite active player.
“Anytime you make a big acquisition in the middle of the season, it’s always going to be challenging, not only for me, but for (Austin Reaves) and the rest of the group,” James said. “There were times where we obviously didn’t look so well, but I think we kind of figured it out later in the season, the more games we had. I still don’t think we had enough time to mesh, but for the time that we had, I thought we ended the regular season very well to be top three in the West.”
Doncic isn’t the only teammate who could compel James to return: His 20-year-old son, Bronny, is coming off a surprisingly solid rookie season with the Lakers in which they became the first father and son to play together in NBA history.
Bronny James is hoping to carve out a bigger role alongside his father next season after getting sporadic playing time this year. LeBron said the chance to work alongside Bronny this season was the “No. 1” accomplishment of his career.
[MORE: Timberwolves eliminate Lakers from playoffs with Game 5 win]
There are no apparent contractual or financial issues in James’ way: He has a player option for next season that will pay him more than $56.2 million. That’s serious money to leave on the table, even for a business mogul with a net worth estimated at more than $1 billion.
An eighth consecutive season with the Lakers would be the longest stretch of his career with one team, surpassing his first seven seasons with Cleveland — although he returned for four more years and a championship with the Cavaliers.
James’ level of play remained high in his 22nd season, confounding all previous notions of basketball longevity. He averaged 24.4 points per game — his lowest since his rookie season, but just barely — along with 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds.
James remained the Lakers’ heart while they won 52 games and the Pacific Division title despite the midseason roster upheaval. Every significant contributor on this season’s roster is under contract for 2025-26 except for Dorian Finney-Smith, who has a $15.3 million player option, and inconsistent center Jaxson Hayes.
In a moment of reflection near his 40th birthday last December, James speculated that he could continue to play at this level for five to seven more years. He doesn’t intend to stick around that long, however.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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