LeBron James was non-committal when asked about his future plans following the Los Angeles Lakers' Game 5 elimination by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday. James has typically been cryptic at this point in the season throughout his career and is expected to continue playing in the NBA at the age of 40.
"There's no expectation for LeBron James to retire," said Shams Charania on The Pat McAfee Show. "I will say that my sense, my understanding is he will play at least another NBA season. You think about next year, it'll be year 23, that would set a league record. Year 23 for number 23. The All-Star game is in Los Angeles. He's potentially playing in Los Angeles. There's a lot of stars that would align for next season, potentially, if that's what LeBron James decides. He'd be 41 years old in December. He's 40 years old right now. So the expectation is he's going to be playing at least another season, but again how long?
"And the other thing is does Bryce James, his son, does that factor play into it at all? His son is going to be potentially draft eligible in 2026 next year. So if he feels at some point next year Bryce James might be an NBA player. Might be a draft eligible player, does he extend that window? I think that's the only potential carrot caveat that you think of out there that could keep LeBron James even longer than at least one more year. But we saw his answer last night, he's he was very non-committal.
"He's got a $54 million player option, so what do you do there? Do you opt in? Do you opt out? My feel is that he probably opts into that. And then from there, it's like what does the Lakers roster look like? Because this was a LeBron James at 40 years old that was playing games and playing significant minutes as a center. And I don't expect that to be in his future to be playing the center position at 41 years old. This is not sustainable for LeBron James at this point in his career"
If James continues playing, he is expected to remain with the Lakers.
"That's definitely the case," said Charania. "He hasn't indicated anything otherwise. I mean to leave Los Angeles at this point in his life in his career... I mean I guess you'd never say never you'd never say never, but all the indications would be that's where he would retire. He said it publicly that's where he would want to retire."
