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Journalism of Courage
LeBron James said he had made no decision yet on the future after the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a first-round exit in the NBA playoffs. LeBron turned 41 last year in December and ended his 22nd season in the NBA on Wednesday evening firmly as the league’s top scorer in history. If he plays one more season, he will break the NBA longevity record, which he currently shares with Vince Carter.
On being asked how long he will continue to play, LeBron said: “I don’t have the answer to that. 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.”
Lakers’ season-ending defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves did give enough hints that LeBron is far from done, as he scored 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists but could not prevent the Lakers from losing 103-96.
“It’s up to me if I’m going to continue to play, or how long I’m going to continue to play,” LeBron said. “It’s ultimately up to me, so it has nothing to do with anybody else.”
The Lakers made a league-altering trade by bringing in Luka Doncic in exchange for their franchise cornerstone player Anthony Davis. This season, LeBron and Doncic played just 21 games together after the deal. But the Lakers are expected to make massive alterations to their team to maximise the potential of the team. Ever since joining the LA Lakers seven seasons ago, LeBron has managed to guide the team to just one NBA title: inside the bubble in Florida during the COVID pandemic.
Now the prospect of playing a full 82-game season alongside Doncic — a player he has called his favorite NBA player among active athletes — might just be appealing enough to keep him from retiring. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the prospect of having his son Bronny as a teammate at the Lakers.
“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,” LeBron 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.”
