LeBron James was not ready to make any decision about his future at the painful moments immediately after his 22nd NBA season ended with the playoffs departure from the first round of Los Angeles Lakers.
“I don’t have the answer to that,” James said Wednesday night when asked how long he will continue to play. “Something I will sit with my wife and my support group and my son or I will simply talk about him, and see what happens. I only have conversations with myself about how long I want to play. I don’t know the answer to be honest now, to be honest now, to be honest now, to be honest now, to be honest, to be honest,
James, 40, has not given any public indication that he is thinking about retirement this summer, but Lakers’ fans will endure until the top scorer in the NBA history makes their plans work.
James did not provide suggestions after registering 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the 103-96 defeat of the Lakers against Minnesota.
“It depends on me if I’m going to continue playing, or how long I will continue playing,” James said. “Ultimately, it depends on me, so it has nothing to do with anyone else.”
Most observers think that the four -time champion plans to return for a 23 season, which would break the NBA longevity record that currently shares with Vince Carter. It also has only 49 regular season games behind Robert Parish, who has the NBA record with 1,611 games played. James already has the league record for race playoff games with 292.
But his Sevens season with the Lakers is over after the victory of the Timberwolves series. Los Angeles did not build a winning dynamic quick enough for the arrival of the mid -season of Luka Doncic in a seismic trade for Anthony Davis.
James Lakers have advanced in the postseason only once in the five years after the championship in the Florida bubble, but if James returns, he returns to a completely reconfigured team built around his new association.
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James and Doncic played only 21 games together after the agreement, and it was not enough to maximize their possible teamwork. Another full year together could raise its association to formidable levels, and James still seems intrigued by the perspective of playing a full or more year along with the Slovenian superstar that has described as its favorite active player.
“Every time you make a great acquisition in the middle of the season, it will always be a challenge, not only for me, but for (Austin Reaves) and the rest of the group,” James said. “There were times when we obviously did not look so good, but I think we did or discovered it later in the season, the more games we had. I still don’t think we had enough time to combine, but for the moment I thought we had finished.
Doncic is not the only teammate who could force James to return: his 20 -year -old son, Bronny, comes a surprisingly solid rookie season with the Lakers in which they became the first father and son to play together in the history of the NBA.
Bronny James hopes to forge a more important role with his father next season after obtaining a sporadic game time this year. LeBron said the opportunity to work with Bronny this season was the achievement “No. 1” of his career.
[MORE: Timberwolves eliminate Lakers from playoffs with Game 5 win]
There are no contractual or financial problems of devices in the way of James: it has a player option for the next season that will pay more than $ 56.2 million. That is serious money to go on the table, only for a commercial tycoon with a net estate estimated at more than $ 1 billion.
An eighth consecutive season with the Lakers would be the longest stretch of his career with a team, size, in his first seven seasons with Cleveland, although he returned for four more years and a championship with the Cavaliers.
James’s level of play remained high in his 22nd season, confusing all the previous notions of the longevity of basketball. He averaged 24.4 points per game, the lowest since his rookie season, but barely, along with 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds.
James remained the heart of the Lakers while won 52 games and the title of the Pacific Division despite the list of mid -seasonal season. All significant taxpayers in this season’s list are under contract for 2025-26 waiting for Dorian Finney-Smith, who has an option as a player of $ 15.3 million and the Jaxson Hayes inconsistent center.
In a moment of reflection near his 40th birthday last December, James speculated that he could continue playing at this level for five more years. However, it does not intend to stay so long.
Associated Press reports.
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