LeBron James Talks NBA Future After Lakers Lose In First Round

LeBron James spoke about his NBA future after the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2025 playoffs.

James is 40 years old. He’s the oldest player in the NBA. 

“I don’t know,” James said. “I don’t have an answer to that. Something I’ll 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. So we’ll see.”

James has a player option worth $52.6 million for next season. The Lakers were projected to compete for the championship this year after acquiring Luka Doncic. 

Instead, they are going home after round one. 

“For me, since my first NBA Finals appearance in 2007, the moment I got an opportunity to be a part of that and taste that feeling, from there on, every season that I did not make it to the Finals or did not win the championship has been a disappointment,” James said. “So … it will be an offseason of disappointment and unfulfillment.”

James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists during the regular season. The leading scorer in NBA history averaged 25.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists in the Timberwolves-Lakers series. 

James joined the Lakers in 2018. He guided the franchise to the championship in 2020 against the Miami Heat at the Walt Disney World bubble. 

Los Angeles’ roster can’t compete for a championship, so Rob Pelinka could make some changes this summer. 

“It’s a business,” James said. “So you don’t know what the roster will look like next year besides the guys that [are] locked into contracts. S—, I got a lot to think about myself. So I don’t know what the roster will look like. I don’t know where I stand right now.”