LeBron James has been in the league longer than many current NBA players have been alive. A litany of young players have had fathers who played alongside or against ‘The King’ at some point in their lives such Jabari Smith Jr, making James quite the elder statesman.
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However, despite having been in the league for 20 years and being 38 years old, he’s still just as dominant offensively as one could be. With him posting up stats that throw the concept of ‘Father Time’ out of the window, it’s quite difficult to ponder over when he will look to officially retire from professional basketball.
He certainly isn’t the oldest player in the league as players like Udonis Haslem are still on NBA rosters. Though, Haslem has stated that he will be retiring after this season while it seems as though James will be looking to lead the Lakers through a postseason run next season.
When will LeBron James retire?
LeBron James has never stated clearly as to when he would like to retire. However, he’s revealed certain checkpoints in his NBA career that he would like to reach before he hangs up the jersey for good.
There’s only one thing James seems to want to achieve before he retires and that’s play with his son, Bronny James, in the NBA. His son making it to the league simply isn’t good enough. The 4x NBA Finals MVP wants to be on the same team as the one that drafts his eldest son.
For this to take place, he would have to play in the 2024-25 NBA season, a season in which he would turn 40 years old. To take it a step further, James has also expressed an interest in being in the NBA for when his second eldest, Bryce Maximus James makes it to the NBA.
Bryce will be eligible for the NBA Draft in 2026 and for James to play in NBA at the same time as him, he would have to be in it during the 2026-27 season, making him 42 years old at the time.
Would LeBron James retire after playing both of his son?
Looking at the goals that LeBron James has set out for himself, it should be safe to assume that the 2026-27 would be his final season in the NBA barring any catastrophic injuries. However, a current teammate of his might have information stating otherwise.
Dennis Schroder of the Los Angeles Lakers said in an interview some time back that LeBron wants to play until he’s 45 years old. LeBron playing till the end of the 2029-30 season seems unfathomable, even by his standards. If he does pull it off, he would be the first player in NBA history to play in 4 separate decades.
