With LeBron James set to begin his 23rd season, much of the chatter surrounding him centers on his decision regarding when he will retire from the game.
James is in an odd position. Usually, this deep into
a career, players are a shell of themselves. They are no longer playing starter minutes, much less high factors in a team’s success.
LeBron is still playing at an All-NBA level and, at worst, is the second-best player on a Lakers team that finished third in the Western Conference during the regular season.
So, not only does he have to consider when it’s time to hang it up, but since he hasn’t fallen off, part of that calculation involves his current situation and whether he still has the drive to compete and has an opportunity at another title.
LeBron is clearly still driven to continue playing this game, and his team is matching that energy.
Los Angeles spent the summer getting into “championship shape,” and Lakers President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka has made it clear he’d love James to retire a Laker.
So, how much does the current situation in LA factor into LeBron’s decision? Could the fact that his current running mate, Luka Dončić, is entering his prime maybe convince James to stick around a bit longer?
During media day, LeBron threw cold water on that hypothesis.
“As far as how long I go in my career? Zero,” LeBron said. “The motivation to be able to play alongside him every night, that’s super motivating. That’s what I’m gonna train my body for every night that I go out there and try to be the best player I can for him and we’re going to bounce that off one another.
“But as far as me weighing in on him and some other teammates of how far I go in my career, no, it would be literally my decision alone with…my wife and my daughter. It won’t be, ‘Hey, having a meeting with my teammates.’ It won’t be that.”
So there you have it, playing alongside Luka motivates LeBron for the present but does not impact his future.
This makes sense considering LeBron is having the slowest fadeaway of a career we’ve ever seen. At this point, he could probably continue playing until he was 50 if he were willing to accept limited roles. James will have the privilege of hanging it up, knowing he could’ve played more if he wanted to.
So, it’s logical that he has to go with self-reflection more than which star he can play with when making this decision.
We don’t know when the end is, but LeBron has made it clear it’s coming. Now we also have a better understanding of how he’ll come to that conclusion, it’ll be about himself and his family. His teammates will not be a factor in that decision.
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