<\/p>\n\n AP AUDIO: LeBron: \u2018I don\u2019t have the answer\u2019 to questions about his future after Lakers\u2019 exit from NBA playoffs\n <\/p>\n
The future plans of an NBA icon are up in the air after an early playoff exit. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to me if I\u2019m going to continue to play, or how long I\u2019m going to continue to play,\u201d James said. \u201cIt\u2019s ultimately up to me, so it has nothing to do with anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most observers think the four-time champion is planning to return for a 23rd season, which would break the NBA longevity record he currently shares with Vince Carter. He is also just 49 regular-season games behind Robert Parish, who holds the NBA record with 1,611 games played. James already holds the league record for career playoff games with 292.<\/p>\n
But his seventh season with the Lakers is over after the Timberwolves\u2019 4-1 series victory. Los Angeles didn\u2019t build a winning dynamic quickly enough to the midseason arrival of Luka Doncic in a seismic trade for Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 Lakers have advanced in the postseason just once in the five years since their championship in the Florida bubble \u2014 but if James returns, he\u2019s coming back to a completely reconfigured team built around his new partnership with Doncic.<\/p>\n
James and Doncic played only 21 games together after the deal, and it wasn\u2019t enough to maximize their potential teamwork. Another full year together could raise their partnership to formidable levels, and James still seems intrigued by the prospect of playing a full year or more alongside the Slovenian superstar he has described as his favorite active player.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you make a big acquisition in the middle of the season, it\u2019s always going to be challenging, not only for me, but for (Austin Reaves) and the rest of the group,\u201d James said. \u201cThere were times where we obviously didn\u2019t look so well, but I think we kind of figured it out later in the season, the more games we had. I still don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doncic isn\u2019t the only teammate who could compel James to return: His 20-year-old son, Bronny, is coming off a surprisingly solid rookie season with the Lakers in which they became the first father and son to play together in NBA history.<\/p>\n
Bronny James is hoping to carve out a bigger role alongside his father next season after getting sporadic playing time this year. LeBron said the chance to work alongside Bronny this season was the \u201cNo. 1\u201d accomplishment of his career.<\/p>\n
There are no apparent contractual or financial issues in James\u2019 way: He has a player option for next season that will pay him more than $56.2 million. That\u2019s serious money to leave on the table, even for a business mogul with a net worth estimated at more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n
An eighth consecutive season with the Lakers would be the longest stretch of his career with one team, surpassing his first seven seasons with Cleveland \u2014 although he returned for four more years and a championship with the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 level of play remained high in his 22nd season, confounding all previous notions of basketball longevity. He averaged 24.4 points per game \u2014 his lowest since his rookie season, but just barely \u2014 along with 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds.<\/p>\n
James remained the Lakers\u2019 heart while they won 52 games and the Pacific Division title despite the midseason roster upheaval. Every significant contributor on this season\u2019s roster is under contract for 2025-26 except for Dorian Finney-Smith, who has a $15.3 million player option, and inconsistent center Jaxson Hayes.<\/p>\n
In a moment of reflection near his 40th birthday last December, James speculated that he could continue to play at this level for five to seven more years. He doesn\u2019t intend to stick around that long, however.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 LeBron James wasn\u2019t ready to make any decisions about his future in the painful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[495,1013,7,1006,579,374,448,32,185,150,368,307,6,446,11,3040,66,449,2685],"class_list":{"0":"post-5738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bronny-james","12":"tag-ca-state-wire","13":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-jaxson-hayes","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-luka-doncic","19":"tag-minnesota","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-basketball","22":"tag-nba-playoffs","23":"tag-robert-parish","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-vince-carter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114433343052645495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738","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=5738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}