Lebron James undecided in the future after the Lakers of the first round has exit

Los Angeles Lebron James was not ready to make decisions about his future in the painful moments immediately after his 22nd NBA season, with the playoff exit in Los Angeles Lakers of the first round.

“I don't have the answer,” said James on Wednesday evening when I was asked how long he will continue to play. “Something that I sit down with my wife and self -help group and just talk myself through and see what happens. Only discussions with me about how long I want to continue playing. I don't know the answer at the moment to be honest.”

The 40-year-old James has not given a public reference to retirement this summer, but the Laker's fans will keep their breath until the top scorer officially makes his plans in NBA history.

James gave no evidence after the record of 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the 103-96 defeat of the Lakers against Minnesota.

“It is up to me if I will continue to play or how long I will continue to play,” said James. “In the end it is up to me, so it has nothing to do with someone else.”

Most observers believe that four-time champion is planning to return for a 23rd season that will break the NBA long-term experience record that he is currently taking with Vince Carter. He is also only 49 games of the regular season behind Robert Parish, who holds the NBA record with 1,611 games. James already holds the league record for career playoff games with 292.

But his seventh season with the Lakers is over after the 4: 1 series series of the Timberwolves. After the arrival of Luka Doncic, Los Angeles built no winning dynamic in a seismic trade for Anthony Davis.

James' Lakers have only been driven in the late season in the five years since her championship in Florida's bladder – but when James comes back, he returns to a completely reconfigured team that deals with Doncic for his new partnership.

James and Doncic played 21 games together after the deal and it was not sufficient to maximize their potential teamwork. Another year together could increase their partnership to impressive levels, and James still seems fascinated by the prospect of playing a whole year or more in addition to the Slovenian superstar, which he described as his active player.

“Whenever you make a big acquisition in the middle of the season, it will always be a challenge not only for me, but for me, but also for [Austin Reaves] And the rest of the group, “said James.” There were times when we obviously didn't look so good, but I think we somehow found it later in the season, the more games we had. I still don't think we had enough time to go into each other, but for the time we had, I thought we ended the regular season very well to be the top three in the west. “

Doncic is not the only teammate to force James to return: his 20-year-old son Bronny has his rookie season with the Lakers, in which they were the first father and son to play together in NBA history.

Bronny James hopes to play a bigger role next to his father next season after receiving sporadic playing time this season. LeBron said the chance to work with Bronny this season was “No. 1” design of his career.

There are no obvious contractual or financial problems on James' Art: He has a player option for the next season, which pays him more than 56.2 million dollars.

An eighth season in a row with the Lakers will be the longest career with a team and surpass his first seven campaigns with Cleveland – even though he was still four years old and a championship with the Cavaliers.

James' game level remained high in his 22nd season and confused all previous ideas of basketball long -lastingness. He achieved an average of 24.4 points – his lowest since his rookie season, but only hardly – together with 8.2 templates and 7.8 rebounds.

James remained the heart of the Lakers, while she had blew up 52 games and the title of the Pacific Division despite the Midseason squad. Every important contributor for the squad of this season is under contract for 2025-26, with the exception of Dorian Finney-Smith, who has a player option of $ 15.3 million, and inconsistent center Jaxson Hayes.

In a moment of thinking near his 40th birthday in December, James speculated that he could still play at this level for five to seven years. However, he does not intend to stay for so long.