LeBron James exercises player option, remaining with Lakers for 23rd NBA season: Source

New York Times

4 hours ago

After 22 seasons, LeBron James can finally check off a new first — opting into the final year of his contract.
James, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, exercised his $52.6 million player option to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2025-26 season, a league source told The Athletic.
The decision deadline was Sunday. After turning 40 in December, James' choice is notable as there is no guarantee about what comes after this upcoming campaign. He could choose to retire, a possibility he has publicly acknowledged.
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James is perhaps the godfather of NBA player empowerment, leading a movement of players seeking shorter deals with player options to maximize earning potential, maintain flexibility and apply pressure on front offices. Dating back to James' six-year deal with the Miami Heat signed in 2010, which had an out clause after four seasons, Sunday's decision marks the first time he has not utilized a mechanism in his contract to become a free agent.
With his age and after recovering from a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee sustained in the Lakers' final playoff game, realistically, there wasn't much of a market outside of Los Angeles for James to get a new contract worth what the Lakers will pay him this season. Additionally, James' son Bronny is entering his second season with Los Angeles, and it is fair to question if the elder James would willingly walk away from playing with Bronny.
This past season, James played 70 games and earned All-NBA Second Team honors. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game, shooting 37.6 percent from 3 and a career-best 78.2 percent from the free-throw line. Following the Lakers' first-round playoff elimination, James was asked how much longer he wanted to play.
'I don't know. I don't have an answer to that,' he said. 'Something I sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play. I don't know the answer to that right now, to be honest.'
James has held major sway in the Lakers organization since joining in 2018 and leading the franchise to its 17th championship in 2020 alongside Anthony Davis, who is also represented by agent Rich Paul and joined James after forcing a trade from New Orleans in 2019. The Lakers traded for and later dealt away Russell Westbrook under pressure from James. And on opening night last October, LeBron and Bronny became the first father-son duo to share a court as teammates, which LeBron called 'one of the most gratifying, satisfying journeys I've ever been on.'
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But the Lakers are entering a period of tremendous change. In February, the team shocked the NBA — and James — by trading Davis for Luka Dončić, acquiring a new focal point for the organization's on-court identity. And in June, Jeanie Buss agreed to sell controlling interest in the franchise to Mark Walter at a $10.1 billion valuation price.
Following the season, Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said he envisioned James, Dončić and Austin Reaves as the core of the team.
'I think when you get those three pillars in a training camp environment and you're starting to build an ethos around them, that's a great starting point,' Pelinka said. 'And we didn't have that opportunity this year, but we will next year.'
Dončić can sign a long-term extension with the Lakers on Aug. 2.
As for James' history as a trailblazer for NBA contracts, he infamously left Cleveland as a free agent in the summer of 2010. But to help the Cavs recoup some assets in his departure, he signed a six-year deal with them as part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Heat. He led Miami to four finals — and two titles — but after a loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 finals, he exercised the early termination clause in his contract so he could return to northeast Ohio.
In four seasons with Cleveland after leaving the Heat, James signed three contracts, all with player options that he declined. The first two times he declined his option with the Cavs, he never really threatened to leave as a free agent, but he held the specter of another potential departure over the heads of management so the team would show it remained committed to winning. After Cleveland won its first-ever championship in 2016, James signed the longest of his three deals with the Cavs in that era — a two-year contract with a player's option for a third year to be exercised in the summer of 2018. James declined that option before leaving as a free agent for the Lakers that summer.
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James' first contract with the Lakers was for four years and $153.5 million, which he extended by two years and for another $86 million prior to the 2020-21 season. He signed another extension in 2022 for two years and $99 million, with a player's option, and declined that option last summer to sign his current deal — for two years and $101 million with the player's option he just exercised, a non-trade clause and a 15 percent trade kicker on the value of his contract if he were to accept a trade.
James recently returned to on-court activity following his knee sprain.