ANGELES — Having just finished his 20th NBA season with an uneventful sweep of the playoffs, LeBron James made his way down the ramp to leave the arena on Monday night, not knowing if it would be his final walk out of the building as an active player.
This offseason, James plans to explore retirement, he told ESPN.
Following his 40-point performance and playing all but four seconds of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 113-111 Game 4 loss to the Denver Nuggets—his last-second floater to force overtime being blocked at the buzzer—James concluded his press conference by saying, “Going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”
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ESPN questioned James about his remarks after the news conference.
What line should we draw when you say you need to think about things?
James responded, “If I want to continue playing.”
like the following year?
“Yeah.”
Would you turn to leave?
“I got to think about it.”
James, 38, led the No. 7-seeded Lakers all the way to the Western Conference finals as he concluded his career.
Despite still recovering from a right foot injury that sidelined him for a month in the latter part of the regular season due to a torn tendon, he participated in all 17 of Los Angeles’ postseason games, including the play-in victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
When James hurt his foot against the Dallas Mavericks on February 26, he claimed to have heard a pop. After seeing a number of doctors, some of whom advised surgery, he finally found a physician he referred to as “the LeBron James of feet,” who gave him the assurance that he could heal the condition and play again without the need for surgery.
James said to ESPN on Monday, “I’m going to get an MRI on it and see how the tendon either healed or not healed and go from there,” in response to a question about whether surgery would be an option this summer. We’ll watch and see.”
As James did in 2021–22 when he missed the final five games due to a lingering ankle injury and in 2018–19 when he missed the final six games due to a groin strain that had not fully healed, he acknowledged that his foot injury had affected his performance after he returned. However, James said he did not consider ending his season early.
James told ESPN, “I knew I could cross the finish line.” “Obviously, I knew I had to deal with it and deal with the pain or deal with not being able to be myself before the injury, but there was nothing that made me feel like I couldn’t get to the finish line.”
Playing in his 282nd postseason game overall, James was outstanding in Game 4 against Denver, breaking a record for points in a half in a postseason game by outscoring the Nuggets by 31 points at the half on 11-for-13 shooting.
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