{"id":775002,"date":"2026-07-01T02:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/775002\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:48:17","slug":"lebron-james-bids-farewell-to-los-angeles-lakers-as-nba-free-agency-drama-unfolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/775002\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James bids farewell to Los Angeles Lakers as NBA free agency drama unfolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James thanked the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday for allowing him to wear the storied team\u2019s purple and gold colours after the NBA club wished \u201cone of the greatest athletes in history\u201d all the best in his impending free agency.<\/p>\n

The four-time NBA champion \u200cand league\u2019s all-time leading scorer has spent the last eight seasons of his glittering career with the Lakers, leading them to a title in 2020 during the Covid pandemic after two separate stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and four years with the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, THANK YOU!\u201d James said on social media in response to a Lakers post that wished him all the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruly an honor to wear the [Lakers colours] while trying to continue the greatness & legacies that came before me! Hope I made a few proud during my stint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where \u2060James plays next is now the most compelling storyline of the NBA\u2019s free agency period, which opens later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old, who last March \u200csurpassed Robert Parish\u2019s record for most career regular-season games played, has continued to perform at an elite level despite his age.<\/p>\n

\"LeBronLeBron James surpassed Robert Parish\u2019s record for most career regular-season games played. Photo: TNS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James thanked the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday for allowing him to wear the storied team\u2019s purple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[11375,7,3022,306,305,572,164,144,8300,185,150,295,189,3881,6,3040,52217,574],"class_list":["post-775002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-all-star","tag-basketball","tag-bronny","tag-cavaliers","tag-cleveland","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-heat","tag-jeanie-buss","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miamiheat","tag-nba","tag-robert-parish","tag-south-beach","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116842444036588347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775002","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=775002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}