here<\/a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.\u00a0<\/p>\nLos Angeles Lakers star LeBron James said he intends to wait until later in the summer to make a decision as to whether he will be returning to the NBA after hitting free agency this offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still in the moment of just taking my time. I haven\u2019t even really thought about it too much,\u201d James told Steve Nash around the 12:40 mark of Thursday\u2019s Mind the Game podcast. \u201cObviously, I understand that I\u2019m a free agent, and I can control my own destiny, if being here with this franchise for the foreseeable future or it\u2019s going somewhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I haven\u2019t really even gotten to that point. I haven\u2019t even taken my family vacation yet, which is going to happen after Memorial Day. That\u2019s kind of the thing at the forefront of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
James continued, \u201cI think at some point, up in June, late June, as July rolls around, free agency gets going. As July\u2019s rolling maybe into August, we start to kind of get a feel of what my future may look like, if it\u2019s continuing to play the game that I love\u2014 which I know I can still give so much to the game, and play at a high level\u2014 or if it\u2019s not. But I have not gotten to that point yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Lakers coach JJ Redick and general manager Rob Pelinka have said they want James to return for another season should he desire to re-sign in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Pelinka also said, however, that the \u201carchetype of the roster we want is going to be retrofitted around Luka [Don\u010di\u0107].\u201d<\/p>\n
That could mean an ongoing change in role for James, who stepped back to allow Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves to drive the Lakers\u2019 offense down the stretch of last season.<\/p>\n
Both James and Reaves, who has a 2026-27 player option he is expected to decline, are now expected to hit free agency. That opens up the possibility the Lakers could rebuild their roster by finding players more likely to let Don\u010di\u0107 dominate as the team\u2019s lead ball-handler.<\/p>\n
James said his free agency decision would be based in part on how his family felt about where he spent the next year.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 12-year-old daughter, Zhuri, is currently playing club volleyball in Southern California. His younger son Bryce is heading into his redshirt sophomore season at Arizona, while elder son Bronny is signed for at least one more season with the Lakers.<\/p>\n
James also emphasized a desire to win with his next team after getting swept by the Thunder in the second round of his most recent playoff run with the Lakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning is most important, because you want to be excited about going to work every day. You want to be excited about, like I said earlier, winning the day, and being around a group of guys that feel the same way,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n
Teams with win-now aspirations including the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks are expected to make bids for James in free agency.<\/p>\n
Should James decide to return for another season, how he feels about the Lakers\u2019 championship hopes and his role behind Don\u010di\u0107 could influence how seriously he considers those offers this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James could return for his 24th season in the NBA, a league record, after averaging 20.9 points,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,211711,105],"class_list":["post-453547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lebron-retirement-decision","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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