LeBron James is set to become the first player in NBA history to play in his 23rd season this year, and at 40, he still appears to be going strong. There were concerns over the summer that he might have had enough and was contemplating retirement, but Robert Horry believes the King would never let anyone else dictate the final chapter of his career.
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James, despite his age, is not a slouch or even a liability to his team. The Los Angeles Lakers heavily relied on him for success in 24/25, and almost all the burden was on his shoulders until Luka Doncic arrived in February. Instead of seeing that as a sign that the Lakers want to phase Bron out, Horry chooses to see it as support for him and feels he can compete at the highest level for another couple of years.
In his podcast Big Shot Bob, Horry dismissed the chances of James announcing his retirement sometime this season. “I think he has more in him,” the seven-time champ began, before making a joke about Bron adding another “son to the list“.
Horry was talking about Bryce, of course, who’s 18 years old and could head to the NBA in a couple of seasons. It would be the second son, James shares the court with after making history with his first-born, Bronny, last year.
That said, it’s not just about Bryce, as Horry started to break down just how good James has been, not just physically, but mentally. “If you look at the way he’s playing, he’s still playing at a high level. Most people… I know going into my last season, I was mentally fried. So, I knew I wasn’t even trying to make it into another season.”
“Then, when I got midway into the season, I was like, ‘Sh**, I might wanna do it again,’ and then close to the end of the season I’m [again] like, ‘I don’t wanna do this sh** again.'”
Horry predicts that James, much like he once did, will go through the same range of emotions before making a final decision. He believes LeBron will play through the 2025–26 season before deciding on his future. But one thing is certain: he is not going to let the media break the news. He will announce it himself, just as he did with his bombshell “Decision” in 2010 when he left Cleveland for Miami.
“When he gets ready to do this, it’s gonna be just like the thing when he… he’s gonna have an announcement. He’s just, oh, meet me. I’m retiring – last season…. And when you’re that great, you should do something like that.”
Understandably, if James announces before a season that it will be his retirement tour, the league’s attention over the next several months will be entirely on him. But as Horry said, that’s only fair. It’s hard to even fathom that we may never see him in the NBA again. So fans, haters, and neutrals alike will simply choose to take it all in.
