LeBron James Retirement Rumors Feel Premature After Lakers Playoff Exit

There’s almost no way that Monday night’s loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder was the last game in the NBA for Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.

The Thunder proved they’re on a different stratosphere, sweeping the Lakers in four games after James and a hobbled Austin Reaves were unable to survive without Luka Doncic, who missed the entire postseason.

Immediately after the game, speculation ran rampant about that being the final time that James suits up in the NBA.

That feels tremendously unlikely.

Despite missing the first 14 games of the season due to a sciatica injury in his lower back/right side, James put together a wildly impressive season during his 23rd year in the NBA. Following LA’s exit against the Thunder, James admitted that being the third option behind Doncic and Reaves was something that he’s never done before in his career, and refused to call the season a failure from a personal standpoint.

James was masterful during the Lakers first round playoff victory against the Houston Rockets. Without Doncic and Reaves for much of the series, the 41-year-old superstar gave the Lakers an unexpected upperhand.

He finished the season averaging 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds – a far cry from the player he once was – but way better than any other player to ever touch the basketball court at 40 years old or older.

Polymarket, a popular prediction market application that allows users to trade contracts on real-world outcomes, gives James just a 19% chance of retiring. At 41, James was once again non-committal about his basketball career for what felt like the fifth-consecutive season. However, this season showcased that he still has gas in the tank and a retirement would feel premature, even though he has nothing left to prove as a four-time champion and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

Even though James has leaked that he’s not super crazy about the pressure that a retirement tour would put on his body, it’s difficult to see him calling it a career without a proper send off.

Where will LeBron play next year?

Polymarket currently has the Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers tied with 46% probability to be the team that rosters James next season.

Obviously, the Lakers are his current team. He’s had two stints in his hometown of Northeast Ohio with the Cavaliers, who might be better positioned than Los Angeles to help James compete for a fifth championship ring next season. The Cavaliers have a slight upperhand to land James, as a contract would cost 58¢ opposed to the 53¢ contract for LeBron to return to Los Angeles.

Outside of the Cavs and Lakers, no other NBA squad has been given anything better than a 10% chance of winning the James sweepstakes this offseason. The Philadelphia 76ers have a nine percent chance. The Utah Jazz, Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers all have a four percent chance.

There’s decent value on James joining Stepehn Curry and the Golden State Warriors, who currently only have a three percent chance of signing James. They just returned head coach Steve Kerr for two more years. A contract on James joining the Warriors would cost 28¢, which is the most expensive outcome other than the Cavaliers and Lakers.

Expect James to play in the NBA next season. He’ll either be on the Cavaliers with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden or return to the Lakers, where he’ll remain the third option in a loaded Western Conference behind Reaves and Doncic.