The question couldn’t be clearer: “LeBron, did you think this might be your last game with the Lakers tonight?” He, in the belly of the Ball Arena in Denver where the Lakers have just been eliminated by the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, thinks about it for a few seconds, starts to smile and then says: “I won’t answer that question.” His eyes turn twice towards the journalist, as if to say that there are many things he would like to say but which he prefers not to say at the moment. Then he thanks you, gets up, and leaves. And the speculation begins. What did King James mean? What didn’t he say? What does “I won’t answer that question” mean for his future?
situation
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LeBron has a player option worth over $51 million for 2024-25. By June 29th he will have to let the Lakers know whether he intends to exercise it or not and become a free agent. The Lakers want to keep him: they still see him as the cornerstone of the franchise, the one around whom they can plan the future even if he is 39 years old. So much so that they would even be ready to offer him a three-year renewal. James has no intention of quitting at the moment: the idea of playing with his first-born Bronny is still very much in his head, but the 19-year-old has to decide whether to stay in the June 26 draft or go back to school (“He has to do what’s best for him to decide how he wants his career to go. It will be nice to talk about it, but we’ll see.” In his 21st NBA season, James proved that he is still elite: he was one of three players to close the regular season with at least 25 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists on average (the other two are MVP finalists Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic ), in the playoffs he showed that he still knows how to make a difference. He is the oldest in the NBA, but he remains better than the vast majority of his colleagues. And he is destined to enter one of the three All-Nba quintets.
future
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LeBron won’t decide his future right away. He will take some time to be with his family, he will begin to prepare the Olympic expedition with Team USA. By the time he shows up at training camp in Las Vegas at the beginning of July he will have decided what to do: he needs the Lakers to redesign the team around him and AD because “I’m not someone who likes to participate”. As always in his career, he is in complete control of his next move, of what he wants to be. Season number 22, the one in which only Vince Carter has played in NBA history, is absolutely in his plans. Most likely he will be at the Lakers, probably with the contractual flexibility to decide when to quit if Father Time ever finds his address. His hope is that he will be with Bronny, if his son decides to stay in the draft. For now, LeBron’s future remains that unsaid, that smile, those rolling eyes that hide the real answers.
