LeBron James is exercising his $52.6 million option with the Los Angeles Lakers for 2025-26, further confirming that he will become the first player in NBA history to play a 23rd season, a person with knowledge of the decision said Sunday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither James nor the team announced the decision publicly.
James, who recently returned to on-court workouts after taking several weeks to recover after spraining a knee ligament in the Lakers’ final game of this past season’s playoffs, told the AP earlier this month that he expected to be ready for training camp. That was an obvious sign he planned on returning for a 23rd year, one in which he’ll break a tie with Vince Carter for longest NBA career by a player.
“I have a lot of time to take care of my injury, my knee, the rest of my body and make sure I’m as close to 100% as possible when training camp begins in late September,” James said in that interview.
If any doubt existed even after that about James, the NBA’s oldest current player, coming back for at least one more season, it’s gone now. He had until Sunday afternoon to make his decision on the option, one that pushes his career on-court earnings to about $580 million.
This coming season will be his first full year with Luka Doncic as a teammate. Doncic was traded to the Lakers from Dallas in February, but the team — which entered the postseason as the No. 3 seed in a loaded Western Conference — still fell in Round 1 to Minnesota.
James turns 41 in December. He’s been an All-NBA pick in 21 of his 22 seasons in the league, including a second-round nod this past season. No other player has more than 15 All-NBA selections.
He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists this past season. The NBA’s all-time scoring leader has appeared in 1,562 regular-season games, 49 behind Robert Parish’s mark of 1,611 — the most in league history. If healthy, James would obviously figure to break that mark this coming season.
Los Angeles didn’t build a winning dynamic quickly enough to the midseason arrival of Doncic in a seismic trade for Anthony Davis.
James’ Lakers have advanced in the postseason just once in the five years since their championship in the Florida bubble — but James returns to a completely reconfigured team built around his new partnership with Doncic.
James and Doncic played only 21 games together after the deal, and it wasn’t enough to maximize their potential teamwork. Another full year together could raise their partnership to formidable levels, and James still seems intrigued by the prospect of playing a full year or more alongside the Slovenian superstar he has described as his favorite active player.
“Anytime you make a big acquisition in the middle of the season, it’s always going to be challenging, not only for me, but for (Austin Reaves) and the rest of the group,” James said. “There were times where we obviously didn’t look so well, but I think we kind of figured it out later in the season, the more games we had. I still don’t think we had enough time to mesh, but for the time that we had, I thought we ended the regular season very well to be top three in the West.”
Doncic isn’t the only teammate who could compel James to return: His 20-year-old son, Bronny, is coming off a surprisingly solid rookie season with the Lakers in which they became the first father and son to play together in NBA history.
Bronny James is hoping to carve out a bigger role alongside his father next season after getting sporadic playing time this year. LeBron said the chance to work alongside Bronny this season was the “No. 1” accomplishment of his career.
Tn eighth consecutive season with the Lakers would be the longest stretch of his career with one team, surpassing his first seven seasons with Cleveland — although he returned for four more years and a championship with the Cavaliers.
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