Even in his twenty-first NBA season, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers has not shown much evidence of slowing down, but he senses that his time is running out.
James discussed his impending retirement after he scored 40 points on Sunday, March 21, against the Brooklyn Nets.
“Not very long. Not very long,” James said about how much longer he will play, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “I’m on the other side obviously of the hill, so, I’m not gonna play another 21 years, that’s for damn sure. But not very long. I don’t know when that door will close as far as … when I’ll retire, but I don’t have much time left.”
LeBron James of the Lakers made history against the Nets with a 40-point performance.
James put together an incredible game against the Nets, especially considering that he didn’t have “much time left,” as he put it.
James, along with Michael Jordan, became the only players to score forty points or more on multiple occasions after turning forty-nine. James has now completed the feat twice, compared to Jordan’s three times. While James will turn 40 in December during what will be his 22nd NBA season in the 2024–25 season, assuming he doesn’t retire before then, Jordan played his final season at the age of 40.
James not only scored 40 points at the age of 39, but he also made nine of his ten 3-point attempts. After the game, he discussed that performance with McMenamin and other reporters.
I don’t ever have to lean on [3-pointers] because I can do so much — I can score on any level on the floor basically once I cross half court. But being able to have a growth mindset and be able to work on things that the league is changing to, the league is a heavy 3-point shooting league.
I’m not one of those guys that wants to go out there and shoot 12, 14 or 15 3s per game. But I want to be respected, and teams have to play me from the outside. That’s still kind of one thing teams [think] … “If we have to give up something, we’d much rather him shoot the ball from the outside.”
Lakers are leading after two games in their late-season road trip.
The Lakers’ spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament on the Western Conference side of the bracket was all but guaranteed thanks to James’ performance. As of Monday night’s schedule of games, Los Angeles, the ninth-seeded team in the Western Conference, led the eleventh-seeded Houston Rockets by 3.5 games.
As of Monday night, the Lakers were 1.5 games ahead of the 10th-seeded Golden State Warriors and had deficits of two games against the Phoenix Suns (seed No. 7) and 1.5 games against the Sacramento Kings (seed No. 8).
Los Angeles will play the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night to continue its current six-game road trip, and the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night to wrap it up. The Lakers have won three of their past four games, including one in double overtime against the Milwaukee Bucks when James was not playing.