LeBron James’ chest heaved, sweat dripping off his brow as he tried to really rev his engine for the first time in a month.
Everything had changed for the Los Angeles Lakers the game before they played the Dallas Mavericks on April 6, his new life as a third option gone in the blink of a pair of muscle strains, first to Austin Reaves and then to Luka Dončić.
James had stepped back so the Lakers could win, so they could put together a credible chance at a championship. Now without their two leading scorers, there was no more time for complementing. As it’s been for almost all of his career, it was all on James again.
If there was ever a reason to push this 41-year-old body that had logged the most minutes and games in NBA history to its absolute limits, this was it. And whether this was his last stand before a stunning retirement or yet another improbable chapter in his storied career, he would embrace the chance to remind the masses that this is how his legacy was built.
On Saturday in Los Angeles, James will lead a Lakers team into the playoffs as heavy underdogs against the Houston Rockets. His team will be overmatched and undermanned. And in plenty of circles, his team will have been counted out. Over 23 NBA seasons and 18 playoff appearances, James has been here before. Whether he’ll ever be here again is a different story entirely.
Team and league sources granted anonymity to speak openly say James has made no decisions regarding his future; that retirement remains a real possibility. The notion that James would want a farewell tour — long cited as evidence that this season was not his last — is false, those sources said, with several sources even hearing that directly from James himself.
The hypothetical tour, like so many other things dealing with James, is something people believed he’d want. Just like they believed he’d be unable to meld his style around the Lakers’ guards or stomach the organization prioritizing its future around younger stars.
That warmup session in Dallas came shortly after the Lakers played their best basketball since the 2019-20 championship season, a stretch of play that helped stoke James’ passion for winning and repair bridges that had been damaged during his eight years with the Lakers.
After months of speculation that the two parties were headed for a divorce, a strong March changed the Lakers’ landscape and, potentially, the future between the organization and player. Winning, sources said, increased the chances of James and the Lakers extending their partnership.
Around the league, rumors also persist that one last run in Cleveland, or a superstar Steph Curry-James duo in Golden State, are plausible possibilities as well. Per team sources, the Warriors’ interest in James this summer remains serious. The Cavs, and the prospect of a goodbye tour where James’ journey began, are also still widely seen by rival executives as a legitimate possibility. But in both cases, the luxury tax poses obstacles that likely mean James would have to make major financial concessions to come their way.
His decision, whatever it might ultimately be, will undoubtedly have family considerations heavily factored in. And the prospect of relocation that comes with some of these options is nothing to gloss over, with one executive from an interested team sharing that James’ reluctance to leave Los Angeles has been no secret among outside suitors.
James is teammates with his son Bronny, whose contract runs through next season with a team option for 2027-28. He has called the opportunity to play meaningful basketball with his son the “greatest” achievement of his career. His wife, Savannah, and 11-year-old daughter, Zhuri, have lived in Los Angeles since James came from Cleveland in 2018. His youngest son, Bryce, redshirted this past season at Arizona.
But that hasn’t stopped team and league sources from wondering where he will play his 24th NBA season or if he’ll even play one at all.
For now, though, he enters the playoffs as the Lakers’ leader — his relationship with the team, coaching staff and organization all in a good place — just in time for him to take on a massive challenge.
During James’ only game in Cleveland this season, on Jan. 28, everyone saw the star wipe tears from his eyes during an in-game video tribute.
Every time the Lakers played in Cleveland, the Cavaliers showed one on the scoreboard. This time, though, James cried.
“Didn’t expect that,” he said.
LeBron James got surprisingly emotional in his return to Cleveland on Jan. 28. (David Richard / Imagn Images)
Before that game, two of James’ teammates saw TV cameras and Ohio media members hanging out around James’ locker while they chatted up the player they used to cover.
One player was convinced James would continue to play, that the early-season rust from the sciatica injury that cost him training camp, the preseason and the first 14 games had just begun to shed and that he had a lot to offer. The other thought James was headed to retirement.
“There’s nothing left to prove,” the second Lakers player reasoned. “It’s like playing a video game you’ve already beaten 80 times. You’ve done it.”
That night, those players agreed they didn’t know what would happen with James beyond this season — other than that they didn’t think he’d be with the Lakers.
As recently as last summer, there were strong signs that the partnership between James and the Lakers might be nearing an end. The most revealing piece of evidence came in late June, when James picked up the $52.6 million player option on his deal and there was no offer from the Lakers to add years to his contract, as The Athletic reported at the time.
For a player of his stature, one who has been relentlessly recruited for the entirety of his storied career, this was a notable shift. What’s more, there was the now-infamous statement from James’ agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, who questioned whether the Lakers were willing to build a championship contender before James’ playing days were done. An ESPN report in late January only made matters worse, as it highlighted the sometimes-difficult dynamics between James and longtime owner Jeanie Buss.
“It’s really not right, given all the great things LeBron has done for the Lakers, that he has to be pulled into my family drama,” Buss told The Athletic in response to the ESPN story. “To say that it wasn’t appreciated is just not true and completely unfair to him.”
Two of the NBA’s biggest entities — a marquee franchise and its largest individual star — seemed, even to Lakers players, like two massive steamships slowly pushing apart without the ability to make a quick course correction.
But the landscape surrounding LeBron has changed dramatically, with developments unfolding on and off the floor that could lead James to remain with the Lakers.
Injuries to James, Dončić and Reaves throughout the season kept the Lakers’ best players from finding real rhythm with one another, leading to some levels of on-court discomfort between the three. Team sources said the stars often worried about making sure everyone was involved enough, fearing the fallout from establishing a clear hierarchy.
Wins over New York and Minnesota at home in March with James dealing with his nagging foot issues, though, made it clear to the NBA’s all-time leading scorer that it would be best for him to take a step back for the betterment of the team.
“I’m not an idiot. I understand,” he’d later say on his Mind the Game podcast. “I’m well aware of my game and what I can do for a basketball team.”
James told Dončić and Reaves to forget about him on the court, that they simply needed to play freely like they did without him. He would figure out how to bend his game to suit them.
In 11 games during March with that hierarchy established, James starred in his complementary role. He averaged just 18 points but he did it on 55 percent shooting from the field. He grabbed 7.5 rebounds, handed out 7.1 assists. The Lakers went 15-2 in that month, beating winning teams like the New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets.
“It sells papers a lot easier and clippings and podcasts if you say, ‘LeBron, that their team is better off without him,’” James said after a win in Miami. “But they’re absolutely wrong.”
James celebrated Dončić and Reaves’ successes on his social media stories and he golfed with his coaches and teammates during a lengthy road trip while belief seeped into the locker room that the team was maybe capable of a deeper playoff run than even they expected earlier in the year.
Then, in a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2, the Lakers lost both Dončić and Reaves. And just like that, it set them on a different course, again pushing James to the front of the Lakers’ line as their hope for the year deflated.
The Lakers’ ability to level up in March, when faith was restored on both sides in regards to this complicated partnership, could have a significant impact on James’ future.
According to team and league sources, the Lakers have not closed the door on James returning next season. While it’s been the organization’s public position that it hopes James retires as a Laker, the run in March was the clearest example of the basketball advantages of pairing him with Dončić and Reaves.
“It was real,” one Lakers executive said of the stretch, the winning and the chemistry.
The fact that James agrees with that assessment is crucial, as league sources say he was intrigued and encouraged by what they accomplished during that stretch. And considering the priority he’s still placing on winning, that development — and the what-might-have-been feeling that came with the injuries that followed — appears to have reshaped his view of remaining with the Lakers.
Both team and league sources praised multiple people for the run, from coach JJ Redick deftly managing the pride and ego of those involved to James’ self-awareness to Dončić and Reaves’ empathy for a player of James’ accomplishments taking on a smaller offensive role.
The stretch also could’ve opened James’ eyes to the potential of significant on-court success again in Los Angeles, a league source said.
The Lakers’ strong stretch in March, and the good vibes and chemistry that followed, shifted the conversation about James’ possible future with the team. (Rich Storry / Getty Images)
Winning, the source added, is what makes James happiest in a basketball context, and March showed that the Lakers not only could be a winning team but one that won playing the right way with people celebrating one another’s successes.
According to two high-ranking team sources, the prospect of James returning is still in play from the organization’s point of view. But that scenario would require patience from James, as the Lakers have approximately $50 million in salary cap room and plan on prioritizing roster balance above all else as they continue to build around Dončić.
Reaves, who according to league sources intends to decline the final year of his contract with the Lakers and become an unrestricted free agent, is expected to have top-of-market interest from multiple teams, both those with cap space and those that would need to create it to sign him. Reaves said that he hopes to remain with the Lakers and has strong advocates in Dončić and James. Dončić, according to a league source, has enjoyed his time with James as a teammate.
But the summer of 2026 has long been positioned as a moment of change for the organization, with the team having access to both salary cap space and three first-round picks to use in trades. And as it relates to James and his potential contract negotiations — with the Lakers or any other team — there’s a central question that only he can answer: How much of a factor will money be when he makes his decision?
According to Spotrac, James has been paid a combined $581 million over the course of his career, and he is the first active NBA player to reach billionaire status (with a “real time net worth” of $1.4 billion in March), per Forbes. That financial backdrop matters, of course, because the teams most often cited as realistic options outside of Los Angeles would very likely require a hefty decline in pay.
The Warriors, for example, would likely be limited to the $15 million, non-taxpayer midlevel exception at best and a minimum-salary deal ($3.3 million) at worst. A sign-and-trade would be possible, but the Lakers would have to be incentivized to cooperate and that route would also hard-cap the Warriors at the first apron (projected at $209 million).
The Cavs, meanwhile, are in an even more restrictive position. Even if they let Keon Ellis and Dean Wade walk in free agency, they would be $7.7 million over the second apron. In order to offer the $6 million taxpayer midlevel exception, they would need to be $6 million under the second apron, and approximately $45 million from where they are now, to use the non-taxpayer MLE. As for the sign-and-trade path, that’s not allowed for teams above the first apron (they are approximately $21 million over at present).
Per league sources, a move across town to the LA Clippers, where James has a very close relationship and championship history with coach Tyronn Lue, could also become part of the conversation. That route, unlikely though it is believed to be, would give James and his family a second option when it comes to staying put in Los Angeles. The belief among league sources is that if James were to choose another team, he would do so only with the idea that he would elevate it to serious championship contention.
For all the teams involved, the Lakers would have the easiest pathway to signing James.
As the Lakers regrouped following the injuries to Reaves and Dončić, James began to forge a new path for his team. Fortunately it came against the Curry-resting Warriors, the Devin Booker-less Suns and the Utah Jazz-less Jazz.
In those three wins, James averaged 24 points and 9.7 assists on 56.3/50/72.2 shooting splits, still throwing down the age-defying dunks in transition like he had all year as the league’s top fast-break scorer. Just now it was Luke Kennard and Bronny James on the assists instead of Dončić and Reaves.
The NBA rewarded his play during the stretch by naming him Western Conference Player of the Week.
“I think it was really frustrating for him not to be there Day 1 of training camp, and it was really frustrating for him to not be there on opening night,” Redick said after the regular-season finale. “He played in 60 of the 68 remaining games, and he played in a bunch of back to backs. He had not a good season, not a great (season) — he had a remarkable season. All things considered. You take away the fact that he’s in his 23rd year and he’s 41 years old, he had a remarkable season.
“The fact that those things are real — and they’re very real in terms of the day-to-day management — it’s unbelievable what he did this year.”
James finished the season as just one of four players to average at least 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Nikola Jokić, Dončić and young Atlanta Hawks star Jalen Johnson were the others. It’s his sixth time hitting those marks since he joined the Lakers — becoming the oldest player in league history with those averages each time he’s done it.
It’s one of the biggest, and probably best, arguments against James retiring: he’s simply still too good. Before James will make any decision about his future, he’ll get an amazing opportunity to add to his legacy. The Lakers will open the playoffs without either Dončić or Reaves, the team tapping him back into service as the alpha.
Redick said Reaves and Dončić are both out “indefinitely.” Dončić is due back in Los Angeles late Friday after receiving his final treatment in Madrid for his Grade 2 hamstring strain. Reaves has been with the team in Los Angeles and been undergoing a variety of treatments in both the Lakers and Los Angeles Dodgers facilities, per a team source.
The pressure on the Lakers because of the injuries is relatively low, the ask of James so large that it’s almost impossible to fathom. It’s a situation built for him to either be the hero or, at minimum, a brave warrior doing his best to extend the season.
“Win-win,” one team source said.
James is a calculated decision-maker and hasn’t been prone to emotions clouding his judgment, one league source pointed out. Answers about his future will come when the time is right — something James said himself during All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles in February.
“When I know, you guys will know,” he said. “I don’t know. I have no idea. I just want to live. That’s all.”
Thursday, as the Lakers wrapped their practice before the playoffs, James spoke with a raspy voice. He acknowledged he’d been fighting off a sickness. Still, his focus was unwavering.
The Lakers would need to box out; they’d need to defend Kevin Durant and Alperen Şengün. They’d lock in, pay attention to detail and focus on the immediate.
The Lakers, like James, couldn’t waste time on what was to come next.
“The moment is all we have,” he said hoarsely. “At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”
