{"id":170585,"date":"2025-07-14T18:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/170585\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T18:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:32:12","slug":"charles-barkley-sends-message-after-lakers-lebron-james-luka-doncic-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/170585\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley Sends Message After Lakers’ LeBron James, Luka Doncic Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Barkley Sends Message After Lakers’ LeBron James, Luka Doncic Update<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday, at the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, NBA legend Charles Barkley sat down with Yahoo Sports\u2019 Jason Fitz to discuss the future of the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

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When Fitz asked how much LeBron James should factor into L.A.\u2019s long\u2011term plans, Barkley said, “He\u2019s on the downside of his career. It\u2019s Luka\u2019s team going forward.”<\/p>\n

“But, hey, they\u2019ve got bigger problems than those guys,” Barkley continued. “They\u2019ve got to worry about the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Houston Rockets, and the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers are going to have a good team. But everything in the West starts with OKC, the Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets.”<\/p>\n

James, now 40 years old, closed out the 2024\u201125 season averaging 24.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds over 70 games, while shooting 51.3% from the field.<\/p>\n

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He became the first player in NBA history to score 40+ points in a game as a 40-year-old, earning his 21st All\u2011Star selection.<\/p>\n

Despite those milestones, James\u2019s playoff run was cut short by a first\u2011round series playoff loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, by exercising his $52.6 million player option this past June, James signaled his intention to return for a 23rd NBA season (league record), aiming to chase another title even as he transitions into more of a mentorship role.<\/p>\n

While James remains one of the game\u2019s most decorated figures, tallying four NBA championships, four MVP awards, and the NBA\u2019s all\u2011time scoring record (42,184 points), Barkley\u2019s comments underscore that the Lakers\u2019 future hinges on their younger star, Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n

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\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) and forward LeBron James (23).Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Barkley\u2019s assertion that the Thunder, Rockets, and Nuggets are the West\u2019s true juggernauts rings especially true.<\/p>\n

Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous\u2011Alexander and the Thunder feature one of the league\u2019s most dynamic young cores and are coming off an NBA championship win.<\/p>\n

The Rockets, fueled by the recent trade for Kevin Durant and a deep supporting cast that includes Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Fred VanVleet, have already emerged as title favorites.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Nuggets continue to build a competitive core around stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, recently trading for Cam Johnson and adding depth in Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas.<\/p>\n

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Related: Rockets Release NBA Veteran Days After Kevin Durant Trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Damian Lillard Receives Message From Bucks After Unexpected Release<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley Sends Message After Lakers’ LeBron James, Luka Doncic Update originally appeared on Athlon Sports. On Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1307,883,30460,7,6850,2001,187,866,194,762,23880,938,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,508,152,6,3095,253,179,622,911],"class_list":{"0":"post-170585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-american-century-championship","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-bruce-brown","13":"tag-charles-barkley","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-fred-vanvleet","16":"tag-houston-rockets","17":"tag-jamal-murray","18":"tag-jason-fitz","19":"tag-kevin-durant","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-la-lakers","22":"tag-lakers","23":"tag-lalakers","24":"tag-lebron-james","25":"tag-los-angeles","26":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","27":"tag-losangeles","28":"tag-losangeleslakers","29":"tag-luka","30":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","31":"tag-nba","32":"tag-nba-championships","33":"tag-nikola-jokic","34":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","35":"tag-shai","36":"tag-tim-hardaway-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114853023019970119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}