The King reigns on: LeBron James opts into $52.6m Lakers contract for 23rd NBA season
LeBron James will become the first player in NBA history to play in 23 seasons when he returns to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025-26.
James, the NBA's career leading scorer, is exercising his $52.6m player option for the upcoming season, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul told ESPN on Sunday. It is unclear if James, who turns 41 in December, intends to play past the upcoming season.
'LeBron wants to compete for a championship,' Paul told ESPN. 'He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with [Lakers ownership and executives] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.
'We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what's best for him.'
James, who has played in 1,562 regular-season games, is 50 shy of breaking Robert Parish's NBA record.
James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists in 70 games in 2024-25 to rank in the top 22 in each category. He is a 21-time All-Star, four-time league MVP and four-time NBA champion.
James entered the NBA as an 18-year-old after being selected No 1 in the 2003 draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
S&P 500, Nasdaq futures climb to record highs on trade optimism
June 30 (Reuters) - Futures tracking the S&P 500 and Nasdaq touched record highs on Monday, as optimism over U.S. trade negotiations with its key partners helped support upward momentum in markets. Shares of technology heavyweights rose premarket after Canada scrapped its digital services tax targeting U.S. tech firms, just hours before it was due to take effect, in a bid to advance stalled trade negotiations with the United States. Shares of Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab edged up in the range of 0.6% and 1.7%. The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab rose to all-time highs on Friday, as bets of deeper U.S. interest rate cuts and renewed optimism around AI helped markets rebound from the months-long tumult sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies and geopolitical tensions. Focus now shifts to a July 9 deadline for countries to reach deals with the United States or see tariffs spike higher, but Trump has said he could extend the tariff deadline or "make it shorter". Investors are also looking into economic data and fiscal policy developments to see if the latest bull run in U.S. stocks can continue. U.S. Senate Republicans pushed President Donald Trump's sweeping tax cut and spending bill forward in a marathon weekend session. Senators are scheduled to start voting on a potentially long list of amendments to the bill beginning at 9 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Monday. Key economic data releases this week include monthly non-farm payrolls and the Institute for Supply Management's survey on manufacturing and services sectors for June. Several U.S. central bank officials including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell are scheduled to speak later this week. A raft of soft economic data and expectations that Trump will replace Powell with someone dovish have pushed up bets of rate cuts from the Fed this year. By 5:48 a.m. ET (0948 GMT), S&P 500 e-minis were up 24.5 points, or 0.39%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis climbed 137 points, or 0.6% and Dow e-minis added 205 points, or 0.46%. Despite record highs for U.S. stocks, the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow are set for their weakest first-half performances since 2022. Among other movers, shares of big U.S. banks rose after the Federal Reserve's annual "stress test" found twenty-two of the largest U.S. banks are well-positioned to weather a hypothetical severe economic downturn and continue lending. The optimistic showing could lead to banks upping how much excess capital they plan to distribute to shareholders via dividends or stock buybacks. Shares of JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab, Bank of America (BAC.N), opens new tab, Citigroup (C.N), opens new tab and Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab rose in the range of 0.4% and 1.9%. Juniper Networks (JNPR.N), opens new tab rose 8.4% after the U.S. Justice Department settled its lawsuit challenging server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE.N), opens new tab all-cash acquisition of the networking gear maker for $14 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares rose 5.6%.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
NBA legend LeBron James, 40, makes official decision on retirement
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James as officially opted into his $52.6million player option for the upcoming NBA season. James was widely expected to make the move where he gains the huge payday, with his decision to play on for the Lakers prolonging his retirement at least one year. James will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2026 season, when he will be 41. James opting in leaves the Lakers with under $6million to spend on free agents and other moves this offseason, per ESPN. Klutch Sport CEO Rich Paul, James' agent told the outlet that LeBron 'knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.' James has been with the Lakers since 2018, winning an NBA Championship in 2018. The team has inserted his good friend JJ Redick as Los Angeles' head coach and drafted son Bronny James to the team last year. James could retire at the end of this upcoming season, with a severe pay cut expected should he want to continue playing. Rarely has a player over 40 garnered the kind of money James would like, with Tom Brady being an exception. If someone could replicate that, James appears to be in good shape to do so. James has held a contract at the NBA's maximum since 2014, with that figure likely coming to an end at the end of this season no matter what. James may be trading out the hardwood for Hollywood after he retires from the NBA, as he has hinted at making the jump to acting. James has previously hosted ' Saturday Night Live ' and was the star in the movie 'Space Jam: A New Legacy' - which flopped compared to its iconic predecessor. A full-time career in Hollywood would no doubt be lucrative for James, with interest from studios an unknown. 'If the scripts start to roll in and there's an opportunity for me to do some acting and I have the time... I don't mind looking at it and seeing if I can make it happen,' James said to the Hollywood Reporter.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
US energy firms eye new Northeast natgas pipelines, buoyed by Trump and demand outlook
June 30 (Reuters) - U.S. energy companies are eying renewed opportunities to build natural gas pipelines to tap in to Appalachia shale formations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, buoyed by U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-energy policies and expectations that demand for the fuel will rise in coming years. The U.S. is already the world's top gas producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas. While the country helps meet fuel demand around the world, many consumers in the U.S. Northeast do not have access to gas due to a lack of pipeline infrastructure and instead continue to use heating oil in their homes and businesses. The Appalachia shale fields, which cover the Marcellus and Utica formations, have the largest gas reserves in the U.S., but energy companies have limited ability to move more of that fuel to the rest of the country because most existing pipelines are already near full. In addition, companies have found it tough to build new projects in the region due to legal and regulatory pushback from states and local and environmental groups. Output growth in the region, which produces about a third of the nation's gas, has stalled in recent years after some firms lost billions on delayed or canceled pipes. But now, as Trump rolls back regulations to boost domestic energy production, several U.S. firms, including Williams Cos (WMB.N), opens new tab, Boardwalk Pipeline, DT Midstream (DTM.N), opens new tab and EQT (EQT.N), opens new tab, have proposed building or expanding pipelines and other infrastructure in the Northeast. "We are actively evaluating opportunities to expand infrastructure," Amy Rogers, spokeswoman at EQT, the nation's second-biggest gas producer with operations in Appalachia, told Reuters. "Enhancing pipeline capacity is essential to unlocking Appalachian supply," she said. In 2024, the U.S. produced about 103.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas and consumed a record 90.5 bcfd of the fuel, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day. Analysts expect that new LNG export plants and electric generation facilities to power artificial intelligence at data centers will push U.S. power and gas demand to record highs in 2025 and 2026 and beyond. Output from Appalachia has increased every year since at least 2009 when the region produced just 1.7 bcfd of gas. Lack of pipeline capacity, however, has slowed that growth to an average of just 2% a year from 2020 to 2024 versus an average of 15% a year from 2015 to 2019, according to EIA data. Looking forward, output in the region is expected to grow by an average of only 1% a year in 2025 and 2026 - to 36.2 bcfd and 36.6 bcfd, respectively - according to EIA projections. New infrastructure, coupled with growing energy needs in the U.S., could add up to 5 bcfd of new demand for Appalachia gas supplies through 2030, said Jack Weixel, an analyst with consultancy East Daley Analytics. "That is definitely a lot more than anyone was expecting from Appalachia just a mere 12 months ago," he said. Support from the Trump administration has already prompted pipeline operator Williams to begin reviving two canceled projects to transport gas from Pennsylvania: the 0.65 bcfd Constitution Pipeline to New York and the 0.4 bcfd Northeast Supply Enhancement to New Jersey and New York. "The NESE and Constitution projects are essential to address persistent natural gas supply constraints in the Northeast, constraints that have led to higher energy costs for consumers," said a spokesperson for Williams. During the winter of 2024-2025, it cost about twice as much to heat a home with oil than with gas, according to federal energy estimates. More than 80% of the roughly 4.6 million U.S. homes still using heating oil as their primary heating fuel in 2024 were located in the Northeast region. Williams canceled Constitution in 2020 and NESE in 2024 after years of fighting for permits, especially water permits, from state regulators. State environmental regulators in New York and New Jersey did not comment directly on Williams filings to revive the NESE project, which runs through both states. In New York, Millennium Pipeline, meanwhile, said it plans to begin negotiations for binding commitments for a proposed expansion that could add up to 0.5 bcfd of capacity to its existing 2.0 bcfd pipe. High interest from shippers underscored the need for additional pipeline capacity in the region, Millennium said, which anticipates that the expansion, if approved by its owners, could start service by late 2029. Millennium is owned by units of DT Midstream and Canadian energy firm TC Energy ( opens new tab. Meanwhile, EQT and partners want to extend their existing 2.0 bcfd Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia into North Carolina with the proposed 0.55 bcfd Southgate expansion project. The $7.85 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline, which entered service in 2024 and whose construction cost was more than twice the amount originally planned, was the last big pipeline to enter service in the Northeast region after years of delays. In Ohio, Boardwalk Pipelines said it is evaluating interest for its proposed Borealis pipeline project, which could create up to 2.0 bcfd of incremental transportation to markets from Ohio to Louisiana. Still, despite Trump's pro-energy policies, some of the same headwinds pipeline projects faced in the past are likely to resurface. Several organizations, including the Sierra Club environmental group, have already filed protests against Williams' NESE with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees federal permitting of gas pipeline projects. "The Northeast does not need more gas pipelines that pollute our neighborhoods and leave us vulnerable to price spikes from global volatility, especially as gas demand locally is already beginning to wane," Jasmine Vazin, director of the Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign at the Sierra Club, told Reuters in an email. The following table lists the gas pipes in various stages of development in recent years that could move more fuel from the Appalachia region.
