LeBron James has chosen the $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 NBA season, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
The move ensures James will return to 23 years in the league, extending his record career for at least one season, but his agent Paul hints that if a better chance of winning would appear, it might not be with the purple and gold.
“LeBron wants to compete for the championship,” his agent Paul told ESPN. “He knows that the Lakers are building for the future. [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] And see the Lakers as a key part of his career. ”
Paul added: “We understand the difficulty of winning when preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate the best form for LeBron in this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left, and the Lakers understand that it is supportive and want what suits him best.”
James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists last season, helping Los Angeles to 50-32 and the third seed of the West in a blockbuster trade, which brought Luka Doncic to the end of Luka Doncic's Los Angeles season, earlier than hoped, and James made it clear that he wanted the team to get in while that wasn't the ball.
Behind the scenes, his long-term future in the league remains uncertain. At a recent dinner in New York in New York, LeBron was captured by video:[Savannah] Want me to go – retire around next year.
Whether this will be LeBron's last step remains to be seen. But one thing is clear, he is not interested in wasting very little time.
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