At career crossroad, James has options: Lakers, leave, retire
LOS ANGELES -- LeBron James did not have a tee time waiting for him Tuesday.
A running joke around the Los Angeles Lakers this season was to ask James when and where his tee time was. A newly passionate golfer, he often had 18 holes set up somewhere before noon.
But as James walked out of the arena in Los Angeles on Monday night, he had to adapt. The season was over. There would be no flight to Oklahoma City for Game 5. And because he figured there would be more basketball, there was no tee time, either.
The NBA’s career leading scorer, he will soon become an unrestricted free agent. He said he was unsure about his future after the Oklahoma City Thunder finished a sweep of the Lakers with a 115-110 win in Game 4.
“With my future, I don’t know. Honestly,” James said after the final game of his 23rd NBA season. “It’s obviously still fresh from losing. And I don’t know. I don’t know what the future holds for me.
“As it stands right now, tonight, I got a lot of time.”
League sources continue to say James is sincerely unsure about whether he wants to continue playing. A return to the Lakers is a possibility, though he is sure to have other suitors in free agency, especially if he takes a sizable pay cut from the $52.6 million he made this season.
If he signs for less money, it will be the first time in his career that his salary is lower than the year before.
The expectation, according to a league source, is that no decision is imminent. James said he was confident he can still contribute to winning at a high level but would discuss things with his family.
“I think for me, it’s about the process,” James said. “If I can commit to still being in love with the process of showing up to the arena 5 1/2 hours before a game to start preparing for a game, giving everything I got, diving for loose balls and doing everything that you know that it takes to go out and play. Showing up to practices, 11 o’clock practice, I’m there at 8 o’clock preparing my body, preparing my mind, preparing to practice, to put the work in. So I think for me, I’ve always been in love with the process and not the aftermath of ‘OK, we won that game, or we won a championship.’”
In his final game of the season, James, 41, scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Members of his family and management team and Nike executives were there to watch him try to extend the second-round playoff series.
He nearly did -- before he and his teammates couldn’t.
His final basket came with 4 minutes, 19 seconds remaining, a one-handed dunk to pull the Lakers within a point. But he made an unforced turnover that led to a 3-pointer for the Thunder, then missed his final two shots, the last with a chance to put the Lakers ahead in the final 20 seconds.
Should he retire, it will be the end of an unmatched career that included four NBA championships, four MVP awards and an extensive list of records -- most notably, the most points scored in an NBA career.
“I’ll take time to recalibrate and look over the season and see what’s best for my future,” James said. “And when I get to that point, everyone will know.”
Remarkably, he showed few signs of slowing in a record 23rd season.
He averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists, while missing just eight more games after sitting out the first 14 of the year with sciatic nerve irritation. He led the Lakers to a first-round victory over the Houston Rockets despite playing the first four games without Austin Reaves and the entire round without Luka Doncic, after he had settled into life as a third option before their injuries.
“I was put into some positions I never played in my career. Actually, in my life,” James said. “I’ve never been a third option in my life. So to be able to thrive in that role for that period of time and then have to step back into the role that I’ve been accustomed with over my career, over my life, playing a sport and being able to thrive under that, and then just my teammates allowing me to lead them under extreme circumstances, that was pretty cool for me at this stage in my career.”
James finished the Rockets series with 28 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists in the closing Game 6, with the Lakers outscoring Houston by 26 points when he was on the court.
“To me, he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after that game. “You can argue all you want, and I really don’t care to postulate on who’s the greatest of all time, but he’s one of, if not the greatest of all time. And for him to do it again and answer the bell again, it’s really, it’s baffling in some ways. The leadership aspect that I talked about, he just has this ability to set the tone for the entire group. And he did that again tonight, and our guys responded. I’m really happy for him.”
Reaves credited James for his mentorship over the past five seasons -- a period in which he went from an undrafted guard on a two-way contract to one of the top potential free agents this summer. Reaves said it would mean a lot to him for the two to remain teammates.
“I don’t know anything different,” Reaves said. “My rookie year, I had no idea what the hell was going on, and he basically took me under his wing and given me every opportunity that I could ever ask for, trusted me.”
Reaves added: “He’s taught me a lot. I owe him a lot for my career.”
James, now, will be left to figure out if he has more to give.
“The love of the game is always, it’s always there,” James said.
He added: “But the process for me has always been so much more important because for me, personally, if I fell out of love with the process, then I probably fell out of love with the game. Because then I’m not treating the game with respect for me personally because I know how much work that I put into it.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company
This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 6:39 PM.