LeBron James will suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025-26 after exercising his player option, but the franchise’s refusal to offer an extension beyond next season sent a clear message.
“The Lakers had already made their statement in not offering James a contract beyond this season,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne wrote. “It was abundantly clear that the 21-time All-Star’s time as the face of the Lakers had, for the first time, a planned end date, even if James’ record-setting NBA career did not yet. Whether the 2025-26 season is to be James’ final season in the NBA is up to him. But if he wanted the kind of Hollywood ending that only the Lakers can give legends of the game, the release date was set.”
“Spring, 2026.”
“Luka Doncic in, LeBron James out.”
“The Lakers would of course celebrate him the way they did Kobe Bryant on his retirement tour back in 2016, if that’s what James ultimately decided. But for the first time in his twenty-three-year NBA career, a team had not begged or borrowed against its future to do everything it could to keep James beyond his current contract.”
Windhorst and Shelburne also added that this didn’t come as a surprise to LeBron.
“The Lakers’ posture did not come as a surprise to James, sources said. But it also did not go down easily,” Windhorst and Shelburne added.
At 40 years old with more NBA mileage than nearly anyone in history, LeBron is no stranger to franchises bending over backwards to keep him. But Los Angeles’ focus on securing Luka Doncic long-term may have changed the calculus.
Doncic, set to earn around $46 million in 2025-26, can hit free agency in the summer of 2026. Locking up both Doncic and James could leave the Lakers little financial flexibility.
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