EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — LeBron James began his 23rd season without any hint as to what will come next, instead saying he’s focused on enjoying and maximizing the present in the final year of his current contract with the team.
“I don’t know when the end is,” James said Monday during the Los Angeles Lakers’ media day, “but I know it’s sooner than later.”
James, who will turn 41 in December, said the things that still motivate him at this stage in his career are the opportunities to test his limits physically, the “process,” as he called it, to perform, to recover and to perform again at a high level throughout the season.
LEBRON JAMES x BRONNY JAMES 👀
📍 @Lakers Media Day pic.twitter.com/5IUTRNYONQ
— NBA (@NBA) September 29, 2025
James’ decision comes at the end of a summer filled with speculation about his future plans, speculation that kicked into high gear in late June when he opted into the final year of his $52.6 million deal with the Lakers. Following the decision, James’ agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, issued a statement that left people around the league wondering if James was looking for a way out of Los Angeles.
“LeBron knows the Lakers are building for the future, and he also wants to compete for championships,” Paul told The Athletic. “We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s 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’s best for him. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie (Buss) and Rob (Pelinka) and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”
The Lakers subsequently signed Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia in free agency and gave Luka Dončić a three-year, $165 million extension to cap their summer roster moves. The team didn’t trade any future draft picks, though.
Last week, Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said the organization wants to follow James’ lead when it comes to how long he wants to continue playing.
“The first thing we want to do in terms of LeBron and his future is just give him absolute respect to choose his story with his family in terms of how many years he’s going to continue to play. He’s earned that right. He’s the best one to talk about that in terms of how many years he’d like to play,” Pelinka said. “But we’ve been very intentional this summer in terms of the pieces we add with Luka and LeBron once LeBron opted in, making sure that they had the necessary pieces around them to be on a really competitive, strong team. And we built into that and for that. In terms of the future … first things first would be for him to be able to make the decisions he wants to in terms of how long he wants to play. …
“I think I’ve said before to a previous question, we would love if LeBron’s story would be he retired a Laker. That would be a positive story.”
James began last season by answering questions about the chance to play his oldest son, Bronny. This year, he said playing professionally with his younger son, Bryce, who is a freshman at Arizona, isn’t a direct goal.
“I am not waiting on Bryce,” James said. “I don’t know what his own timeline is. I got my timeline, and I don’t know if they quite match up.”
James, the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, has earned the league’s Most Valuable Player Award four times, has won four NBA championships and Finals MVPs and also has 21 All-NBA team appearances. In addition to leading the league in points, James is No. 1 in minutes, No. 2 in games (a record he could break this season), No. 4 in assists and No. 6 all-time in steals.
He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists last season. The 24.4 points a night was nearly 10 more per game than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar averaged in 1988, previously the most ever by a 40-year-old.
(Photo: Adam Hagy / NBAE via Getty Images)
