LeBron shocked the NBA world by hinting he’s considering retirement after the Lakers were eliminated but there is also the possibility of foot surgery, which could keep him in the game.
He injured his foot on February 26th and missed a month of games after that, so his performance was clearly affected for the rest of the season.
“I’m going to get an MRI on it and see how the tendon either healed or not healed and go from there,” James told ESPN when asked if surgery might be an option this summer. “We’ll see what happens.”
A doctor told LeBron he could bypass surgery and just do rehab, so he wasn’t considering sitting out the rest of the season like he did in 2019 (groin) and 2022 (ankle).
“I knew I could get to the finish line,” James said. “Obviously, I knew I had to deal with it and deal with the pain or deal with not being able to be myself before the injury, but there was nothing that made me feel like I couldn’t get to the finish line.”
When asked if he thought a full summer of rehab could get him back to pre-injury levels, LeBron nodded and explained why.
“Because I’m still better than 90% of the NBA,” he said. “Maybe 95.”
The 20-season veteran has one more season on his contract with the purple and gold worth $46.7 million and a player option worth $50.4 million the year after.
In recent years, he has voiced his desire to stay in the league to play with his son Bronny before he rides off into the sunset.
But James took a different tack yesterday when he ended his press conference by hinting he won’t be coming back at all.
“I got a lot to think about,” he said. “… Just personally, with me moving forward with the game of basketball, I got a lot to think about.”
When pressed about exactly what there is to think about, LeBron simply said, “If I want to continue to play.”
So it definitely wasn’t just a throwaway line to reporters at the end of his press conference.
The 38-year-old definitely does have much to ponder, but at the same time he still has a lot to give, judging by his 40/10/9 night on Monday.