Lakers News: Plugged-In Expert Dubious LeBron James Will Actually Retire

Could this really be it for The King?

When Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA small forward LeBron James announced to a room full of reporters at his final postgame presser of the 2022-23 NBA season that he was actually considering retirement, it set the Internet ablaze for a bit, quickly engulfing the NBA news cycle even when the top story probably should have been the arrival of the Denver Nuggets as a real force. 

After all, Denver did topple LA in a four-game sweep, even if the final cumulative margin of their victory was a mere 24 points across all four games (or an average of six points per).

James, 38, turned in another All-NBA, All-Star run during his 20th pro season, and was probably the best or second-best player on a Western Conference Finals team behind Anthony Davis, whose terrific post defense almost made up for his inconsistent offense. James sure didn't look like a guy who needed to retire any time soon, let alone walk away from the remaining two years and $97.1 million remaining on his contract with LA.

FanDuel TV's Shams Charania, for one, is skeptical that James will actually hang up his Nikes for good this season.

“There’s certainly an expectation that [LeBron's] gonna continue playing, he’s got 2 years left on his Lakers deal… It would be a true surprise if he really did actually retire."

—Shams Charania

(via @FanDuelTV) pic.twitter.com/M0BKERBZun

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 23, 2023

“There’s certainly an expectation that [LeBron's] gonna continue playing, he’s got two years left on his Lakers deal," Charania said. "It would be a true surprise if he really did actually retire."

This reconstituted Lakers club post-deadline could be getting a bit of a facelift this summer with or without a James departure. But clearly, given a lot of uncertainty in the West, Los Angeles looks like a fringe contender again, even assuming James continues to mildly decline across the final years of his deal (he has a player option for the 2024-25 season).

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