Lakers Insider Says 'We Have to Start Thinking About' LeBron Retiring After 2025-26

LeBron James has played 22 NBA seasons, and has been an elite player in all of them, so it's easy to forget that he will actually retire at some point.

And that point very well could happen a year from now.

"I think we have to start thinking about this could be his last year in the league," ESPN's Dave McMenamin said Wednesday. "[James' agent] Rich Paul told me there was no extension talk, because they didn't ask for an extension. They didn't broach the subject. Now, you could say, why didn't the Lakers offer it? Sure, you could. But Paul's point to me was this wasn't a point of tension. It's not something that they were pursuing. So I think you look at it as, yeah, there's a very limited time remaining in his career. We kinda already knew that. We knew that, basically since he reached 20 years in the league, he's gone into every offseason contemplating retirement."

The Lakers are positioned to transition into life after LeBron after Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks gifted them Luka Dončić. But if this is in fact LeBron's last year, the Lakers have clearly prioritized long-term flexibility over going all out this season to aim for one last title with James.

If that has indeed irked James—there has been plenty of reporting suggesting it has—it's understandable. If the Lakers didn't believe there was a true game-changing move available to them, it's also understandable why they wouldn't go for broke in the short term.

It has resulted in some strange vibes this summer, however. Perhaps it will all be rendered a moot point, but for now, the Lakers and James don't exactly seem to be on the same page.