{"id":21207,"date":"2025-09-30T00:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=21207"},"modified":"2025-09-30T00:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:04:06","slug":"lebron-relishing-23rd-season-as-retirement-draws-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=21207","title":{"rendered":"LeBron relishing 23rd season as retirement draws near"},"content":{"rendered":"
LeBron James said Monday he had not decided when to retire from basketball as he prepares to become the first player in NBA history to play a 23rd season in the league.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar told reporters at a media day that he is “excited” by the prospect of another season in the league alongside Luka Doncic and a bolstered roster.<\/p>\n

James will turn 41 in December and plans to savour every minute of the tail-end of a glittering career that has straddled three different decades.<\/p>\n

But the four-time NBA champion and all-time points scorer says he has no idea of when he will retire.<\/p>\n

“I’m excited about today, I’m excited about the opportunity to be able to play the game that I love for another season,” James told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Whatever the journey lays out this year, I’m super-invested because I don’t know when the end is. It’s a lot sooner than later.<\/p>\n

“I’m just super-appreciative of the fact that I come up here to do another media day and talk to you guys.”<\/p>\n

James, who averaged 24.4 points per game last season, said his love for basketball — and hunger to keep improving — remained undimmed.<\/p>\n

“The thing still pushing me is the fact that my love for the game is still high, and the love of the process is even higher,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s that simple — me training and working my body and trying to get my body as close to 100% as possible every year, it’s a beautiful thing for me…The NBA season is a roller coaster. But no matter the good, the bad, ugly, I still love that process.<\/p>\n

“For me personally, I love to play the game, I love to play at a high level. Age is kind of just a number. Not many guys at my age, especially going to year 23, is able to play a level like that. I try not to take it for granted.”<\/p>\n

Last season, the Lakers sent shockwaves around the NBA after signing Luka Doncic in a stunning trade with the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

James said the prospect of playing with the Slovenian star after a full training camp — instead of learning on the fly last year — was another motivating force for his 23rd season.<\/p>\n

“The motivation to play alongside him every night, that’s super motivating,” James said. “That’s gonna train my body for every night I go out there and try to be the best player I can for him. We gonna bounce that off one another.”<\/p>\n

In addition to a full training camp alongside Doncic, James is also relishing the propsect of starting the new season with a squad that has been bolstered by the arrival of veteran guard Marcus Smart and center Deandre Ayton.<\/p>\n

“I’m excited about getting to work, and I’m excited to see what we can do,” James said.<\/p>\n

Doncic meanwhile said Monday he hopes a full pre-season with James and the Lakers squad will make the 17-time NBA champions a more consistent, and formidable, force.<\/p>\n

“When you get to a new team in the middle of season, it’s kind of hard to get everything together,” Doncic said. “But pre-season is going to help a lot with leadership, getting to know the guys. I’m very excited — I think we can do big, big things.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LeBron James said Monday he had not decided when to retire from basketball as he prepares to become the first player in NBA history to play a 23rd season in the league. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar told reporters at a media day that he is “excited” by the prospect of another season in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}