LeBron is on his last contractual year with the Lakers: what's next for him?

King James has irritated a lot of people over the past few years as he ventured out of his area of expertise and tried his hand at being a political influencer of sorts. In doing so he made a lot of people dislike him, with some publications calling him the 'most hated professional athlete in the world."


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Combine this social justice warrior attitude with the fact that he basically refuses to discuss anything about China where actual social justice discussions need to be made and we have a guy who is picking and choosing what he thinks is important in the world. To be fair to James, nobody else in the NBA talks about China either, which to me suggests that they must be contractually obligated to keep their mouths shut about it all.

All that aside, we need to look at the fact that Lebron is 37 years old and is performing much better than most of the other people on the court. Although the Lakers had a rather lackluster season, James was almost the highest scoring player in the league.

When I watch him play he still has the magic left in him for sure and honestly, I can't tell any difference between Lebron now and Lebron 10 years ago. He is still a dominating presence on the court and I feel as though he still has a few years of elite level play left in him. However, he also comes at a very high price tag at nearly $40 million a year. If I was Lakers management, I would be thinking about how that money very likely could be better spent on getting several other players instead of Lebron.

James has stated that he wants to continue playing with the Lakers and wants an opportunity to win another title with the LA squad. There hasn't been much information about whether or not the Lakers feel the same way though. If LA was to not offer a contract extension, where would he go? There aren't many teams out there with 40 million lying around and I believe that LeBron's ego is big enough that he wouldn't budge on this payout for anyone that might be thinking of picking him up.


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If you look at the above chart you will see that there are very few times where his salary decreased year-by-year and I can't really imagine Lebron being cool with that changing when he is still playing in top form.

There are other aspects of LeBron that should also be considered and one of the big ones is that he basically tries to run every team that he is on including bossing around the coaches and even the owners of the teams. They tolerate this because he is still performing, but this reputation is going to make it so that other teams might be very hesitant to take him on as an addition to their team.

While LeBron maintains his outward appearance of confidence that the Lakers will re-sign him, I'm not so sure if that is really the case. We'll find out later in the summer around July or August. If it was up to me I would release him and use that money to get more team-oriented players and rebuild the dynasty. If the Lakers continue to spend so much money on an aging legend, they could find themselves in a really bad way should James get injured which as you know, becomes more and more likely the older a person becomes.



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12 comments
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Well said. The coming months of July and August will be very interesting (about James).

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for sure. I would bet this is a tough time for the Lakers' management. Tough decisions to be made and all that. If they do give him another contract it wouldn't surprise me if it is a one-year contract.

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I think we might see him breaking into the media more and more in the upcoming years he is very smart and has a brilliant team around him maybe a book deal and a Netflix show plus a podcast

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ooof, don't know about that. Have you ever heard him do an interview? The guy barely knows how to talk. I can't really imagine him being capable of conducting an interview but then again, he could be taught i guess. Shaq and others who weren't exactly wonderful wordsmiths were able to become major contributors. The question will be, does James even want that?

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lol only people trying to be experts outside of their field get upset

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most of the same people have no problem comedians venturing out of their area of expertise and tire tried his hand at being a political influencer.
let's take minister Martin Luther king ,eo e Mohammed Ali.
most political figures are not trained in political science. German ex president was a chemist, many comedians act as political reporters. so what exactly makes lebron James such an exception?

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Oh i'm not saying he's not entitled to his opinion but I think there is a very real reason why we haven't heard much out of him lately as it was negatively affecting his brand. I don't really care what he has to say and yeah, go ahead and say it if you want to.

I'm more interested in what will be next for Lebron should the Lakers decide to not give him another contract. At his age it could be too risky for another team to pick him up, certainly at the salary he commands.

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Well the plan for him to go to the Lakers was for the team not to rely on him. That's why they went for the young talented AD. The issue is that he isn't only talented but a health hassard. Also AD actually regressed on his career shooting percentages.
That's what was hurting his brand, i doubt he would have any issues if his team was leading the playoffs.
But last year early exit and this year complete meltdown of the team make it clear that most of the Lakers management can't seem to build chemistry as fast as a roster. Maybe it's a weak coach, or maybe was a collection of bad beds, from letting Caruso go instead of THT or just have Andrew Jordan play like a shell of his days with the clippers.
The Lakers this year stink and Lebron at least kept it decorable with a scoring run that almost win this year scoring title.
But the politicial thing, on the contrary is making his brand even better. Lots of media and team recognition for really telling how it is and making boss moves. I doubt there is a single celebrity from the black community speaking against it. Only white supremacists that hate when people with clout speak up.

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interesting counter-points buddy. Thanks for the really good follow-up!

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