Yesterday it was revealed that NBA superstar LeBron James is exercising his $52.6 million option with the Los Angeles Lakers for 2025-26, confirming that he will become the first player in NBA history to ever play a 23rd season.
James had a June 29 deadline to decide whether to opt in or out of his contract.
Fox analyst Colin Cowherd, a known James defender throughout the years, has an interesting take regarding the decision that will leave Lakers fans worrying about the teams’ future.
“I saw yesterday where he picked up his 52.6 million dollar Laker option, and in the press release (it says), well LeBron wants to win more titles,” Cowherd said. ‘Well, then you can’t pick up the option. You can’t play for 52 million dollars, it’s a hard cap now, no owner is going to blow through it.”
Cowherd mentioned that Luka Doncic is due for a new contract soon, noting that James’ decision could impact those negotiations, as well as improving the roster for 2025.
He’s also not a fan of the recent discourse surrounding James, where he talked about ring culture being over-emphasized on the Mind the Game Podcast with Steve Nash.
“He got into that silly ring debate about two weeks ago, where he talked about something that he didn’t truly believe, which is the ring culture and that it’s over-emphasized. And then that piece of video emerged of LeBron saying after he won in Cleveland, "Hey that ring, I think makes me the greatest of all time,” Cowherd added.
“I thought that the ring culture is over-emphasized,” Cowherd said. Rings matter to everybody, including LeBron and he knows it, but he’s not as popular as MJ, the numbers we remember about Michael are six for six. And Michael is considered the goat by a lot of people.”
Despite making the playoffs in 2024-2025, the Lakers lacked front-court talent, with head coach JJ Redick choosing to not even use a center at times down the stretch.
“They need two centers, Dorian Finney-Smith is opting out. They need two wing defenders and you can’t do it (the Lakers) if you are taking maxes… If Lebron is opting in, it’s not a championship team.”