LeBron James, Lakers consent to two-year, $97.1 million agreement extension

The Los Angeles Lakers have actually accepted a two-year, $97.1 million agreement extension with LeBron James, the group revealed Thursday. This offer will keep LeBron in Los Angeles through the 2024-25 season, when he will be 40 years of ages. He will, nevertheless, have a gamer choice for the last year of the offer. 

If there is a considerable income cap boost for the 2023-24 season, when the extension starts, it might increase to as much as $111 million. Regardless, the contract has actually taken LeBron over $532 million in ensured cash for his profession, moving him previous Kevin Durant as the NBA’s brand-new all-time earner. 

“LeBron is a generational basketball player who has proven to be even more impactful as a human being,” Lakers GM Rob Pelinka stated. “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with him, ensuring he’s a driving force of Lakers culture for years to come. The Lakers platform has proved again and again to be an ideal place for the game’s all-time greats to thrive and achieve. We are thankful LeBron has experienced the power of that. With his transcendent talent, unrivaled passion and dedication to causing powerful change in our society, LeBron continues to cement his legacy in Los Angeles and around the globe.”

While James does not have a no-trade stipulation, his agreement does consist of a 15 percent trade kicker, which integrated with his beginning income of $46.7 million and his stature as the video game’s most effective gamer, indicates he will likely stay a Laker for as long as he desires. 

Will that be up until completion of his profession? Perhaps, however it deserves keeping in mind that with his gamer choice for 2024-25, his legal circumstance is now lined up with that of Anthony Davis. Furthermore, LeBron has actually made it clear that he plans to have fun with his kid, Bronny, for a minimum of one season. Bronny will be qualified for the 2024 NBA Draft, and LeBron can end up being a totally free representative that summer season. There will likely be considerable modifications in L.A. that summer season, which indicates the Lakers now have a two-year window to win with LeBron and Davis. 

Whether they can do so stays to be seen. The group is coming off a dreadful 2021-22 project in which they were besieged by injuries and bad lineup building and ended up in 11th location in the Western Conference at 33-49. That mark was the worst because LeBron showed up in 2018, and wasn’t even sufficient for the play-in competition. It was clear modifications were required.

Over the summer season they fired Frank Vogel and worked with Darvin Ham as their brand-new head coach, and have actually attempted to inject the lineup with youth and athleticism. They will likewise count on much better health for LeBron and Davis, who last season played simply 50 and 46 video games, respectively. None of that will matter, however, unless they have the ability to discover a suitor for Russell Westbrook. Trading the unhappy guard, who just does not fit on the lineup, has actually shown to be an uphill struggle. The Lakers have actually been at all of it summer season and have actually not had the ability to discover an offer. 

Whatever occurs with the Westbrook legend, we can anticipate the normal output from LeBron. He is coming off another excellent private season, in which he made his 18th straight All-Star look and the All-NBA Third Team. His 30.3 points per video game were his most because 2008 when he was still in his very first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he included 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 helps to support his remarkable scoring.