NBA legend LeBron James has a player option to return to the Los Angeles Lakers next season. The four-time MVP and four-time Finals MVP turns 41 in December.
James can decline his 2025-26 player option and become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. If The King doesn’t retire, no one expects the leading scorer of all time to leave the Lakers since his son, Bronny James, and 26-year-old Luka Doncic are on the team
During an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Brian Windhorst of ESPN said James is not expected to leave the Lakers, who lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2025 playoffs in five games.
“I would never cement it just because the Lakers are pivoting a little bit now,” Windhorst said. “Not a little bit. They’ve pivoted to Luka. And so that makes their medium-term future a little bit harder to predict, but LeBron has demonstrated repeatedly, time after time after time, his priority is to be a Laker and to live in Los Angeles.
Unless the Lakers did something to him to change the way he feels about them, which is not their MO — I don’t see that happening.
James appeared in 70 games for the Lakers during the 2024-25 regular season. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.6 blocks.
James, who suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee in Game 5 of the Minnesota series, averaged 25.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks in the 2025 playoffs.
After playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014-15 to 2017-18, James signed with the Lakers in the summer of 2018 as an unrestricted free agent.
Los Angeles missed the postseason in 2019, won the championship in 2020, lost in the first round of the 2021 postseason, missed the postseason in 2022, lost in the conference finals in 2023 and lost in the first round of the 2024 and 2025 playoffs.
Arguably the greatest player of all time, James has played for the Cavaliers (twice), Miami Heat and Lakers. He has career averages of 27.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks.
