LeBron offers nothing definitive on retirement but says he won't wait around for next son to make NBA

LeBron James reiterated the end of his NBA career is near, and he’s not sticking around for another son to make it.

This was the latest clue the Los Angeles Lakers star was willing to offer at the team’s media day Monday while discussing potential retirement and his motivations to continue playing entering his record-setting 23rd NBA season. Though James said nothing definitive about his future beyond this season, he did make light of the situation when asked if he desired to play in the NBA alongside his younger son, Bryce James, like he did last year with Bronny James.

Bryce James is a freshman on the Arizona men’s basketball team.

“I’m not waiting on Bryce,” James said. “… He has his own timeline, I got my timeline and I don’t know if they quite match up.”

James, 40, is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and still earned second-team all-NBA honors last season while playing for the Lakers. He and the team exercised his $52.6-million contract option this offseason but did not come to terms on a new deal ahead of James’ eighth season with the franchise. His agent, Rich Paul, said in a statement in June in reference to the Lakers and their goal to build long-term around Luka Doncic, “We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career.”

Lakers GM Rob Pelinka told reporters last week the team would respect whatever decision James makes for the end of his career, but “we would love if LeBron’s story would be he retired a Laker.” James would be a free agent after this season without a new agreement.

On Monday, however, James struck an optimistic tone about the moves the Lakers made around him and Doncic this offseason, acquiring guard Marcus Smart and center DeAndre Ayton in recent months. James also is looking forward to a full season alongside Doncic, emphasizing how long it took for the team to change its style after trading for Doncic in January and how much Eurobasket he watched to monitor what his star running mate was doing abroad.

And while James had nothing to say about a retirement date, he has a consultation plan in place. It doesn’t include Doncic. Or anybody from the Lakers, for that matter.

“It’ll be a decision between me and my wife and my daughter,” said James, noting his two sons no longer live in his house. “It won’t be a meeting with my teammates.”

The larger point is James wasn’t kidding himself at perhaps his last media day, nor is he kicking himself out of the league just yet. He’s savoring this in case it’s the last season and leaving options open in case it’s not. So long as he’s still able to compete with the NBA’s best, that’s enough to keep coming to the gym at the moment.

“I look at my age like the wine that I drink,” James said. “The older wine I drink, the better it is.”