LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers appears to be like on in opposition to the Golden State Warriors in the course of the first half at Chase Center on December 25, 2024 in San Francisco, California. | Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images/AFP
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — LeBron James celebrated his fortieth birthday on Monday with gratitude for his basketball longevity and optimism about his future with the Los Angeles Lakers.
And when James was requested how he’ll know when it’s lastly time to retire, the highest scorer in NBA historical past provided a frank evaluation of his still-formidable abilities.
“To be honest, if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level for about another – weird that I might say this – but about another five or seven years, if I wanted to,” James stated. “But I’m not going to do that.”
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Longest careers in NBA historical past
James already has one of many longest careers in NBA historical past, however he is aware of it’s nearing an finish. He has repeatedly stated he received’t overstay his welcome in basketball, but that second clearly hasn’t arrived: James remains to be a dominant pressure for the Pacific Division-leading Lakers, averaging 23.5 factors, 9.0 assists and seven.9 rebounds this season.
“It’s kind of laughable, really, to know where I am, to see where I am still, playing the game at a high level,” James stated. “Still being such a young man, but old in the scheme of how many years I’ve got in this profession. (I) just think back to when I came into the league. That’s like the first thing I thought about. You came in as an 18-year-old kid, and now you’re sitting here as a 40-year-old, a 22-year vet, with a 20-year-old in the NBA as well. It’s pretty cool.”
twenty second marketing campaign
James is already in his twenty second NBA marketing campaign — greater than any participant besides Vince Carter, who additionally performed 22 seasons — and he’ll be part of the marginally bigger checklist of NBA gamers to go well with up after their fortieth birthdays on Tuesday night time when the Lakers host the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Akron, Ohio native received Cleveland’s solely main professional sports activities championship with the Cavs in 2016.
James stated he reacted to his milestone birthday with a disbelief acquainted to anyone whose life odometer has rolled over to a quantity they nonetheless haven’t processed.
“I had a decade of the 30s, so to just wake up and just be like, ‘Oh shoot, oh damn, you’re 40?’” James stated with a smile.
James stated he already felt the march of time two months in the past when he and his son, Bronny, grew to become the primary father and son to play within the NBA collectively.
NBA: Lebron James on Lakers’ stable season
LeBron can also be inspired by a stable season up to now with the Lakers, who’ve seemed livelier of their first yr underneath new coach JJ Redick. Los Angeles acquired more durable and deeper Sunday when it traded D’Angelo Russell to Brooklyn for veteran wing defender Dorian Finney-Smith and guard Shake Milton.
“Right now, I think we’re a very good team,” James stated. “I think we have a chance to compete with anybody in the league. Are we at a championship level? Can we win a championship right now? No, I don’t think so. That’s good, because we have so much room to improve, and we also just added two new guys as well. We’ll see how we incorporate those guys. It should be fun as well. But we’ll see. I don’t know if that determines if I stick around longer, because it doesn’t change my career in any sense or fashion.”
James additionally isn’t pondering past Los Angeles, the place he has settled into a snug California life together with his household since 2018. He nonetheless expects the Lakers to be his closing cease every time he decides to shut his epic profession.
“I would love for it to end here,” James stated. “That would be the plan. I came here to play the last stage of my career and to finish it off here. But I’m also not silly or too jaded to know the business of the game as well, to know the business of basketball. But I think my relationship with this organization speaks for itself.”
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