{"id":559606,"date":"2026-07-26T00:11:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T00:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/559606\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T00:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T00:11:47","slug":"rich-paul-suggests-lebron-james-could-have-retired-if-lakers-lost-1st-round-series-to-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/559606\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich Paul Suggests LeBron James Could Have Retired If Lakers Lost 1st-Round Series to Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Had things gone differently for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, the all-time great could have called it a career. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">James&#8217; agent, Rich Paul, said that if the Lakers had lost to the Houston Rockets, James might have retired rather than returning for a 24th season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;That series, in my opinion, [convinced him to keep playing],&#8221; Paul <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/7dN57q2qj7W8qrCoq5M2Xr?si=2f6bb4103613420a&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=cdec61b2afac4e15\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> on Game Over. &#8220;I think if they somehow get swept or lose 4-1 in that series, it could be different. I think that gave us another ride.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">James was tremendous against the Rockets, putting up 23.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.2 assists with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves both out with injuries. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While Los Angeles lost in the second round against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the series showed that James is more than capable of playing at a high level still. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Now, he&#8217;s teaming up with Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia. James agreed to a two-year deal with the 76ers on Friday, setting up a roster that should be more than capable of winning a championship. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Had things gone differently for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-559606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559606","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=559606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}