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A former Los Angeles Lakes star is coming to the defense of LeBron James and Bronny James and confronting the haters.
Has the arrival of Luka Doncic in Los Angeles extended LeBron James‘ career? Many expect James, 40, to reconsider his retirement timeline with the Lakers‘ acquisition of Doncic, arguably a top-three player in the NBA. However, James himself doesn’t view it that way.
During the 2025 NBA All-Star weekend, James was asked if Doncic had altered his retirement timeline.
“I have not given it that type of thought,” James said, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “Just the excitement of being able to add a caliber player like that, a generational talent like that to our franchise, it’s something that’s given me energy. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do. … I think we could be really good going down the stretch. But we’ll see what happens.”
LeBron James Retirement Talk
McMenamin reported on February 3 that James, who has a player option worth $52M for the 2025-26 season, could re-negotiate his contract to play a few more years with Doncic.
“There’s a chance that he will renegotiate a new deal, and this Luka Doncic addition could extend LeBron James’ career,” McMenamin said on “NBA Today” on ESPN. “It’s not a given that next year will be his last year in the NBA. Luka Doncic, at 25 years old, and all the skills he brings… will give LeBron a better team to play with.”
McMenamin added that the Lakers were fully committed to giving Doncic a lot of firepower over the next few seasons, possibly convincing him to ink a new contract. Doncic has the option of testing free agency in 2026.
Doncic and James played just two games together as Lakers teammates before the All-Star festivities. The Lakers went 1-1 in the games, both against the Utah Jazz. The two high-IQ players fed off each other on several occasions, with Doncic even throwing an incredible outlet pass to James that led to a thunderous dunk. Although Doncic, on a minutes restriction, scored less than 20 points in both games, he seemed to fit in nicely with Lakers head coach JJ Redick’s system.
Criticized For All-Star Withdrawal
Amid the talk of James and Doncic as Lakers teammates, the latter was criticized heavily for his last-minute decision to withdraw from the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. James sat out his first All-Star Game in 20 years due to a lingering foot and ankle injury.
ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins called James “selfish” for taking away a spot from another aspiring All-Star.
“Do I have a problem with LeBron James missing the All-Star game at the age of 40 because of injury? Absolutely not,” Perkins told ESPN’s “Get Up” on February 17. “But it’s how he did it. And he knew that he wasn’t going to play when he probably was selected to play in the All-Star game. How about giving people a heads up? Not showing up to the actual All-Star weekend an hour before the game starts.”
“And now, all of a sudden, you’re taking away from another guy that probably earned to be in the All-Star game…Put your damn uniform on. That’s another thing; it came off as him being selfish. It looked selfish on his part…He should have handled it in a better way.”