After 22 seasons, LeBron James can finally check off a new first \u2014 opting into the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n
James, the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer, exercised his $52.6 million player option to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2025-26 season, James\u2019 longtime agent Rich Paul told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
The decision deadline was Sunday. After turning 40 in December, James\u2019 choice is notable as there is no guarantee about what comes after this upcoming campaign. He could choose to retire, a possibility he has publicly acknowledged.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeBron knows the Lakers are building for the future, and he also wants to compete for championships,\u201d Paul told The Athletic. \u201cWe understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what\u2019s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what\u2019s best for him. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we\u2019ve had for eight years with Jeanie (Buss) and Rob (Pelinka) and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
James is perhaps the godfather of NBA player empowerment, leading a movement of players seeking shorter deals with player options to maximize earning potential, maintain flexibility and apply pressure on front offices. Dating back to James\u2019 six-year deal with the Miami Heat signed in 2010, which had an out clause after four seasons, Sunday\u2019s decision marks the first time he has not utilized a mechanism in his contract to become a free agent.<\/p>\n
With his age and after recovering from a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee sustained in the Lakers\u2019 final playoff game, realistically, there wasn\u2019t much of a market outside of Los Angeles for James to get a new contract worth what the Lakers will pay him this season. Additionally, James\u2019 son Bronny is entering his second season with Los Angeles, and it is fair to question if the elder James would willingly walk away from playing with Bronny.<\/p>\n
This past season, James played 70 games and earned All-NBA Second Team honors. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game, shooting 37.6 percent from 3 and a career-best 78.2 percent from the free-throw line. Following the Lakers\u2019 first-round playoff elimination, James was asked how much longer he wanted to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t have an answer to that,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething I sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play. I don\u2019t know the answer to that right now, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
James has held major sway in the Lakers organization since joining in 2018 and leading the franchise to its 17th championship in 2020 alongside Anthony Davis, who is also represented by agent Paul and joined James after forcing a trade from New Orleans in 2019. The Lakers traded for and later dealt away Russell Westbrook under pressure from James. And on opening night last October, LeBron and Bronny became the first father-son duo to share a court as teammates, which LeBron called \u201cone of the most gratifying, satisfying journeys I\u2019ve ever been on.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Lakers are entering a period of tremendous change. In February, the team shocked the NBA \u2014 and James \u2014 by trading Davis for Luka Don\u010di\u0107, acquiring a new focal point for the organization\u2019s on-court identity. And in June, Jeanie Buss agreed to sell controlling interest in the franchise to Mark Walter at a $10.1 billion valuation price.<\/p>\n
Following the season, Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said he envisioned James, Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves as the core of the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you get those three pillars in a training camp environment and you\u2019re starting to build an ethos around them, that\u2019s a great starting point,\u201d Pelinka said. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t have that opportunity this year, but we will next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 can sign a long-term extension with the Lakers on Aug. 2.<\/p>\n
As for James\u2019 history as a trailblazer for NBA contracts, he infamously left Cleveland as a free agent in the summer of 2010. But to help the Cavs recoup some assets in his departure, he signed a six-year deal with them as part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Heat. He led Miami to four finals \u2014 and two titles \u2014 but after a loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 finals, he exercised the early termination clause in his contract so he could return to northeast Ohio.<\/p>\n
In four seasons with Cleveland after leaving the Heat, James signed three contracts, all with player options that he declined. The first two times he declined his option with the Cavs, he never really threatened to leave as a free agent, but he held the specter of another potential departure over the heads of management so the team would show it remained committed to winning. After Cleveland won its first-ever championship in 2016, James signed the longest of his three deals with the Cavs in that era \u2014 a two-year contract with a player\u2019s option for a third year to be exercised in the summer of 2018. James declined that option before leaving as a free agent for the Lakers that summer.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 first contract with the Lakers was for four years and $153.5 million, which he extended by two years and for another $86 million prior to the 2020-21 season. He signed another extension in 2022 for two years and $99 million, with a player\u2019s option, and declined that option last summer to sign his current deal \u2014 for two years and $101 million with the player\u2019s option he just exercised, a non-trade clause and a 15 percent trade kicker on the value of his contract if he were to accept a trade.<\/p>\n
James recently returned to on-court activity following his knee sprain.<\/p>\n
(Photo: Harry How \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 22 seasons, LeBron James can finally check off a new first \u2014 opting into the final year…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,3141,1260,50,222,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-25136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sports-business","13":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114768068282937392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}