{"id":564544,"date":"2026-04-04T17:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564544\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T17:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:56:08","slug":"insider-lebron-james-could-retire-if-lakers-win-nba-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564544\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider: LeBron James could retire if Lakers win NBA championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is anyone’s guess what LeBron James will do after the end of this season. He could stay with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> a little longer, depart or simply decide to call it quits after a record 23 NBA seasons.<\/p>\n

There seems to be a growing feeling that this season will not be the finale of James’ magnificent career. But NBA insider Brett Siegel feels that if the Lakers somehow win it all this June, James could end up calling it a career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn’t necessarily reporting, just my feeling in talking with other people around the league is that if the Lakers do go on that magical run and they go to the NBA Finals and they somehow win the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy, I think that would be it for LeBron,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cI think that he would retire on a high note, go out as a champion. I think that\u2019s just something to kind of keep an eye on and keep in the back of our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, of course, has already won four NBA championships, although he has also lost six times in the finals. The Lakers were looking like a team that could perhaps go on that magical run Siegel referenced when they won 16 of 18 games \u2014 until they got hammered<\/a> by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday and lost Luka Doncic indefinitely to a hamstring strain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While his numbers are down this season due to him playing a lesser role, he appears to have plenty left in his tank, as he still has a good amount of his legendary athleticism and explosiveness intact. On the other hand, going out with another world title would be the ideal retirement scenario for James, and it is one very few athletes have ever been able to pull off.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Insider: LeBron James could retire if Lakers win NBA championship<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is anyone’s guess what LeBron James will do after the end of this season. He could stay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[109925,3013,1055,3014,249830,355,5489,6402,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-564544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-brett-siegel","9":"tag-lebron-james","10":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","11":"tag-luka-doncic","12":"tag-magnificent-career","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-finals","15":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}