{"id":703579,"date":"2026-04-07T15:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703579\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:55:17","slug":"lakers-lebron-james-issues-scary-victor-wembanyama-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703579\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers&#8217; LeBron James Issues Scary Victor Wembanyama Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Victor-Wembanyama-and-LeBron-James-e1775574818331.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Victor Wembanyama and LeBron James\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Lakers&#8217; legend LeBron James kept it real when discussing Victor Wembanyama&#8217;s potential with the Spurs<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u2018 postseason hopes have been flipped on their head over the past week, as both <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/luka-doncic-injury-doctor-special-injections\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luka Doncic<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/austin-reaves-injury-update-241m\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Reaves<\/a> are expected to miss at least the team\u2019s entire upcoming first-round playoff series. That has put quite a burden on the shoulders of <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/lakers-lebron-james-injury-update\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LeBron James<\/a>, who will be tasked with leading the Lakers past whoever their opponent ends up being.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s been a change of guard in Los Angeles this season, as James had slid into a secondary role behind Doncic and Reaves prior to their injuries. The same has been true across the league, as James is no longer considered one of the top players in the league. One guy who has replaced him is <a href=\"http:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/san-antonio-spurs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u2018 phenom <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/san-antonio-spurs\/victor-wembanyama-injury-update-spurs-scare\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, and when discussing his potential, James issued a scary warning that will catch the rest of the NBA\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>LeBron James Drops Truth Bomb on Victor Wembanyama\u2019s Potential<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2003, James shook up the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/\" title=\"NBA\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"217782\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a> with his arrival, as he immediately managed to live up to the sky-high expectations he was faced with as one of the top basketball prospects of all time. In a lot of ways, Wembanyama has followed the road James paved for him, and he\u2019s truly managed to take his game to another level this season for the Spurs.<\/p>\n<p>In 63 games, Wembanyama is averaging career highs in points (24.8) and rebounds (11.5) per game, while also dishing out 3.1 assists per game and leading the league with 3.1 blocks per contest. Simply put, Wembanyama is an anomaly, as he has the height to impact the game on both ends of the floor, while also having the agility to guard the perimeter on defense and create shots for himself on offense.<\/p>\n<p>Wembanyama has placed himself firmly in the MVP conversation, and it\u2019s worth remembering he turned just 22 years old only a couple of months ago in January. For as good as he already is, it feels like Wembanyama has so much more room to grow, which led to James <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aDeWeWoL2nY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">dropping a scary warning<\/a> when it comes to the Frenchman\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m glad I won\u2019t be in the league when (Wembanyama\u2019s prime) arrives. I\u2019m glad I can watch and do this and figure out what time my tee time is tomorrow,\u201d James said on \u201cMind The Game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LeBron James Looking to Keep the Lakers Afloat<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5886009\" class=\"size-inline wp-image-5886009\" data-lazy-load=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775577317_287_GettyImages-2262744945-e1775502255261.jpg\" alt=\"LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers\" width=\"782\" height=\"441\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5886009\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">GettyLeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n<p>While Wembanyama is only beginning to write his story, James is beginning to wrap up his career. What the future holds for him is unknown, and it very well may depend on how the playoffs unfold. There\u2019s real speculation that James could leave the Lakers this upcoming offseason, and of course, at the age of 41, retirement always has to be considered a possibility at this stage of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Even in his 23rd season, James is still going strong (20.8 PPG, 7.1 APG, 6.1 RPG, 51.2 FG%), but even he\u2019s aware that guys like Wembanyama are taking over the league. Whether or not James can hold off Wembanyama and the other top teams in the Western Conference is one of the big storylines of the postseason, but without Doncic or Reaves, that task has become all the more challenging for one of the NBA\u2019s all-time legends.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/owencrisafulli\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Owen Crisafulli<\/a> Owen Crisafulli is an Email Newsletter Editor &amp; Breaking News Writer at Heavy Sports. His work has also appeared on ClutchPoints, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, Athlon Sports, NESN Basketball Network, and FanSided, where he shared his insights on a variety of sports topics primarily surrounding the NFL, NBA, and MLB. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/owencrisafulli\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Owen Crisafulli<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Lakers&#8217; legend LeBron James kept it real when discussing Victor Wembanyama&#8217;s potential with the Spurs The Los&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-703579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116364243181766420","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703579","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=703579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}