LeBron James is reportedly contemplating retirement from basketball after the Los Angeles Lakers had been swept out of the NBA playoffs by the Denver Nuggets on Monday.
ESPN reported that the 38-year-old was occupied with “walking away” from the game after the Lakers’ defeat introduced the curtain down on his twentieth season within the league.
Chris Haynes, a reporter for the TNT broadcaster, mentioned in a separate tweet citing league sources that James’s retirement was “under consideration.”
James himself fuelled hypothesis about his future in a cryptic post-game press convention, saying that he deliberate to take time to mirror on the subsequent stage of his profession after the Lakers’ exit.
Asked for his reflections on the previous season, wherein he turned the league’s all-time main factors scorer and took a rejuvenated Lakers to the brink of the NBA Finals, James mentioned the marketing campaign had been “challenging.”
“I don’t know. I think it was okay. I don’t like to say it’s a successful year because I don’t play for anything besides winning championships at this point in my career,” mentioned James, who delivered a classic 40-point efficiency within the Lakers’ 113-111 loss on Monday.
“I don’t get a kick out of making a Conference (finals) appearance. I’ve done it, a lot. And it’s not fun to me to not be able to be a part of getting to the Finals.
“But we’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see what occurs going ahead. I do not know. I’ve received rather a lot to consider to be trustworthy.”
“Just for me personally, going ahead with the sport of basketball, I’ve received rather a lot to consider,” he added.
James signed a two-year contract extension with the Lakers last August that would keep him at the club through the 2024-2025 season.
‘It’s challenging’
He has long said that he wants to prolong his career in order to play with or against his eldest son Bronny James, who will play college basketball next season at the University of Southern California, and who could conceivably enter the NBA in time for the 2024-2025 campaign.
However, in his postgame remarks on Monday, James hinted that the demands of the NBA’s marathon 82-game season might be taking their toll.
“For me, it is all about availability for me and maintaining my thoughts sharp and issues of that nature, being current on the ground, being current within the locker room and bus rides and aircraft rides, issues of that nature,” James said. “It’s difficult.”
There was little evidence of weariness, however, in James’ first-half performance on Monday, where he erupted for 31 points in a desperate bid to keep the Lakers’ playoff hopes alive.
“That first half was classic LeBron James,” said Denver coach Michael Malone, who worked alongside James as an assistant coach at the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2010.
“Having coached him for 5 years in Cleveland, he understood what time it was with their group, firmly again towards the wall,” Malone said.
“In that first half he confirmed why he is one of many all-time nice gamers, actually put his group on his again and simply went at us.”
Lakers defensive linchpin Anthony Davis, meanwhile, regretted that the team had not been able to give James another crack at an NBA championship after the Denver loss.
“We know the window is all the time small and clearly he is not getting any youthful,” Davis said. “You know, that is why this was so necessary to each of us, and it hurts that we did not get it executed.
“But you know, we regroup, figure out ways we can be better.” — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
