20-time All-NBA Los Angeles Lakers combo forward LeBron James holds a $51.4 million player option for his contract with L.A. in the 2024-25 NBA season. He has until June 29 to make his choice, but apparently he already has (albeit, not officially).
According to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times, that decision has already been made: James intends to opt out of the deal and become an unrestricted free agent for the first time since 2018. At 39 years old, the 6-foot-9 superstar is no longer the unequivocal best player in the league, a designation he still arguably possessed the last time he reached free agency.
This by no means should be interpreted as a sign James, who won his fourth championship overall (and first as a Laker) with the franchise in 2020, wants to skip town. He must realize that the team, which has gone a middling 90-74 across the last two seasons and hasn’t finished better than a No. 7 seed either team, may be further away from contention than a typical LeBron James team, in part because he is no longer quite the generational talent he was in his prime, though he’s still an All-Star.
It’s been reported that the Lakers are happy to sign James whatever he wants to keep him in Hollywood, which of course they did with Hall of Fame shooting guard Kobe Bryant at the end of his career, despite his severely having fallen off from even being an All-Star-caliber player (although fans voted him onto All-Star teams anyway). He remains a box office and ratings draw, and is still a highlight-reel worthy star. James has occasionally floated an interest in playing alongside his son Bronny, a raw former USC combo guard who has declared for the draft and is seen as a fringe second round pick. The Lakers seem poised to attempt to get him, though LeBron has of late tried to distance himself from completely committing to playing wherever his son is drafted.
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