Lakers News: Beat Reporter Estimates Actual Odds Of LeBron James Retirement

Has the future Hall of Famer actually played his last game for the Purple and Gold?

Although your Los Angeles Lakers' 2022-23 season may not have ended with 19-time All-Star small forward LeBron James hoisting up some fresh championship hardware, their run was still largely successful. 

Though Los Angeles finished as merely the seventh seed in the West with a 43-39 record, the team managed to upset both the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors in consecutive playoff rounds. The Lakers' season was wrapped up by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, who are now just one game away from winning their first-ever NBA title in the NBA Finals.

Afterwards, an exhausted and injured James floated the possibility that he might actually step away from the contest. Media pundits have since screamed themselves hoarse proclaiming this to be only minimally likely.

Just how remote a possibility is a James retirement this offseason, with up to $97.6 million in salary still owed to him were he to stick around?

Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes that chats with his sources put the probability of an actual James retirement in the vicinity of 10%.

Accordingly, Los Angeles is said to be comporting itself as if the club will indeed have one of the league's best wings, even in what would be year 21, for the 2023-24 NBA season.

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