When he returns after recovering from sciatica, LeBron James will embark on his 23rd year in the NBA. However, for the first time in his career, the 40-year-old will have no clear future beyond the ongoing season.
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Rumor mills have suggested that the Lakers had refused to entertain his request for a contract extension beyond this campaign. Of course, only LeBron can testify to its veracity, but it has been speculated that LeBron has activated the player option on his contract and hence has no clear-cut future, at least with the Lakers, after the 2025-26 season.
Moreover, his sciatica diagnosis has also raised questions about his overall fitness and how he would fit into a league that is rapidly changing and getting more physically demanding by the year. While these uncertainties hover, former NBA player Stephen Marbury has claimed that LeBron could still be winning titles for teams if they allow themselves to be a bit open-minded.
Marbury stressed that LeBron would “fit in anywhere” and called him the best athlete the American people have ever seen. “I mean, no matter what, he’s still LeBron James. He’s one of the best basketball players to ever play,” he said.
You know, some organization will make an adjustment for him. I mean, he changes the economy based upon him playing where he plays. So it’s not just about basketball,” Marbury told ScoopB.
Marbury is so confident about LeBron’s abilities that he isn’t afraid of making some serious predictions.
The Mavericks need LeBron, claims Marbury
The Dallas Mavericks traded their superstar Luka Doncic last season in a shocking move that was widely criticized by fans. They later went on to pick Cooper Flagg in the draft. However, the way things have panned out so far in the season, it seems that both those decisions have not worked out for them.
Doncic dropped 30 lbs and has become the mainstay for the Lakers and their key for the future. And as far as Flagg is concerned, the Mavs played him as a point guard, and he has simply struggled. It didn’t help that he found himself at the receiving end of a rampaging Victor Wembanyama in the season opener.
With the Mavs struggling, Marbury has claimed that, if they sign LeBron, they could cut short their transition period and be title contenders almost immediately.
“I mean, you put him on that team, they’re contenders,” he asserted, adding that at his age, LeBron needed teammates who would be able to support him in a way that the physical demands on him would ease.
“Every time we get on the basketball court, literally you’re management maintenance… Dallas is a team that he will be more suited for, where he doesn’t have to take on that much of the load,” concluded Marbury.
However, given that the Mavs dropped Doncic under the pretext that they needed someone with more intensity, LeBron might not be the direction they will look at. That said, these are interesting times, and as Marbury pointed out, signing LeBron also comes with a significant economic boost.
