‘A lot to think about myself’: LeBron’s ‘honest’ admission on future after Lakers crash out of playoffs

LeBron James has left the door open to a number of possibilities as a pivotal offseason looms in the Lakers superstar’s future.

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Retirement? Returning to Los Angeles? Playing for another team?

Nothing can be ruled out at this point, at least based on James’ comments in his post-game press conference after the Lakers were bounced out of the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

James has a $52.7 million player option for the 2025-26 season but the 40-year-old wasn’t even prepared to guarantee that he would play on when asked by reporters on Thursday.

“I don’t know. I don’t have the answer to that,” James said.

“It’s something I’ll sit down with my family, my wife, and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens.

“And have conversations with myself on how much longer I want to continue to play. I don’t know the answer to that right now, to be honest. We’ll see.”

James was later asked whether the latter stage of the regular season and playoff series against the Timberwolves helped crystalise further improvements that need to be made to the roster, but instead took the question as an opportunity to address his own future at the Lakers.

“You don’t know what the roster will look like next year besides the guys that are locked into contracts. S***, I’ve got a lot to think about myself, so I don’t know what the roster will look like,” he said.

“I don’t know where I stand right now. Whatever happens, I think JJ (Redick) is going to continue to grow. I thought he had a hell of a rookie campaign for a rookie coach.

“It’s a lot different being a rookie coach. It’s already hard being a rookie coach in the NBA and it’s a hell of a lot harder being a rookie head coach coaching the Lakers. That’s a whole another ball game.

“He handled it extremely well. He just learned every single day, he held us accountable, he pushed us. I thought JJ and his coaching staff were great throughout the whole season.”

Either way, even if James decides to retire or join another team, the Lakers are in safe hands with Luka Doncic after trading for the Slovenian superstar before this season’s deadline.

Doncic said in his post-game press conference that he was “mentally exhausted” after the end of the season, which didn’t produce the NBA Finals run he went on with Dallas in 2024-25 but challenged the 26-year-old in a very different way following the trade.

Obviously the biggest challenge was coming to terms with the fact he was suddenly moved from the NBA team he had given so much of himself to and thought he would represent for the rest of his career.

But it was also a test for both Doncic and James to learn to play alongside each other as ball-dominant superstars, something which the latter admitted on Thursday.

“Any time you make a big acquisition in the middle of the season, it’s always going to be challenging,” James said.

“Not only for me, but for AR (Austin Reaves) and for the rest of the group on how we’re playing. I mean, we went from, wanting to touch the ball in AD’s (Anthony Davis) hands, either off pick-and-rolls or post-ups or off elbow catches.

“But it started with myself and AR kind of handling the ball handling and then making sure we got AD the ball. The whole dynamic change when we made the acquisition of Luka to how can we change our approach to best fit his game and how can we centre our game around his.

“There were times where we obviously didn’t look so well… but I think we kind of figured it out later in the season. 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.”

While obviously a disappointing note to end the Lakers’ season on, James was able to find one clear shining light in the development of Bronny, ranking the opportunity to play with his son as “number one” in his career.

“That’s easy,” James added.

“Not even close. To be able to play the game that I love and be able to be alongside my son this whole year has been one of the most gratifying, satisfying journeys I’ve ever been on, just to see his growth.

“From the moment he was drafted when we were all in New York at the draft party to seeing him in Summer League struggle early on and pick it up towards the end.

“To get on the floor with him in preseason for the first time I believe in Palm Springs. To getting on the court versus this Minnesota team Game 1.

“Just to see what he was able to do every single day by just channeling his mind and just putting in the work. Just seeing how much he grew from the moment he was drafted to doing what he was doing in the G-League, getting opportunities with us.

“Super proud of the shortcomings that he had when we played in Philly. I thought that built so much character and it showed when we set out a lot of guys at their home game when we played Milwaukee.

“He has a bright future because not only can he play the game with basketball… you can ask anybody any one of his teammates, any one of the coaches. He’s just a joy to be around.”