LeBron James is hoping to negotiate a new contract with the Lakers this summer that will pay him “nine figures” over the next three years, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on a recent edition of First Take (video link).
“I don’t think this is LeBron’s last stand, I don’t think this is the Lakers’ last stand,” Windhorst said. “First off, I think LeBron is angling to sign a multiyear deal in the offseason with the Lakers that will be nine figures. That will be even bigger than the deal he is on now. Now, whether or not he’s able to finish that deal, whether or not the Lakers want to give him a three-year contract and pay him $60 million when he’s 42 years old, that’s a different discussion.”
James, who turned 39 in December, is earning $47.6MM this season and faces a decision on a $51.4MM player option for next year. He could come back to the Lakers for that amount, opt to test free agency or pursue a long-term deal that might keep him in L.A. through the end of his career. Windhorst believes that’s his preference if Lakers management is willing to cooperate.
James continues to perform at a remarkable level for someone his age, averaging 25.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 7.9 assists through 51 games in his 21st NBA season. He appeared in his 20th consecutive All-Star Game earlier this month.
James has said in the past that he would like to team up with his son, Bronny, who’s currently a freshman at USC, although there has been speculation that LeBron has softened that stance and would be happy if they’re both in the NBA at the same time. Regardless, the younger James’ draft status will be a story to watch this summer with his father approaching a decision on free agency.
LeBron has also expressed a desire to keep contending for championships in the latter part of his career. Although the Lakers didn’t make any significant moves at the trade deadline, they’re expected to be more aggressive about upgrading the roster this summer when general manager Rob Pelinka will have three future first-round picks to trade.
Time for the Lakers to move on from LeBron. He’s clearly past his prime. Can’t defend very well. Just scores and not much else. The lowly Suns dominated the talentless Lakers.
Averaging over 7 boards and 7 assists a game, but yeah not much else outside of scoring.
Since he doesn’t play defense anymore do they get a 50% discount on that amount?
Warriors have $74 million contract expiring in Klay and Paul.
$74M > $60M
ARC 2
Would you do it?
Do what?
ARC 2 knows what I was saying.
Trade Wiggins, Klay, Moody and 2025 and 2027 Firsts for Grandpa James.
They’re so far over the luxury tax that they aren’t allowed to replace all that salary. It all goes back to the Durant signing.
Y’all got to stop acting like he isn’t one of the top 15 guys in the league still. He doesn’t play much D lol okay neither does 90% of the league outside of the playoffs. I don’t see anyone saying Luka, and Joker should take 50% discounts.
Have you watched him play defense? What’s the point of scoring 28 ppg if you are giving up 35 on defense? A net loss of 7 points.
Your problem is you exaggerate the hell out of just about every comment you make. It’s quite obvious you dislike Lebron so any critique you spew out is worthless and a non-starter.
You mean like curry Luka joker and the list goes on. My God man. LeBron puts fannies in the seats. LeBron is 39 playing at 29. LeBron is LEBRON.
If stats were the only determining factor in a player’s worth, Jerry Lucas would be a Top Ten all-time player.
LeBron is at the stage where he can get stats, but cannot produce wins.
This is the downside of a franchise having one of these guys.
They never want to leave.
They never want a discount.
They always say they want “championships”, but even when they have a reported net worth of over $1 billion ….. Don’t want to take a discount to let the team give the money to somebody else.
They always are on the wrong side of personnel decisions.
They force you to draft a son, who is not good enough to be an NBA player, because despite achieving everything …. Nothing else now matters but playing with the kid, on the Lakers, pretending to contend for a title.
I couldn’t have said it any better. MJ took major salary discounts to keep a powerhouse team together.
Bill Belichick may well be the best football coach in history. However, just as key to the Patriots winning 6 Super Bowls was Tom Brady NEVER taking his value in salary. I think his max with the Pats was like $15 million. That is why they ALWAYS had cap space to sign/trade for Randy Moss, or whatever they needed, and why the defense always had players.
Tom didn’t really take discounts. His contract was just structured differently. They still had to move on from players in FA, they just happen to find lesser and develop them.
The Player Association in sports are not going to let top guys take less. It hurts future earnings and the point of a union.
Jordan never “took a salary discount” he was under contract. He signed an eight year deal worth $25 million which at the time was the 6th highest contract in the league. Sure, he was underpaid by the time his contract was up but that’s because there was a new CBA a couple years prior and salaries skyrocketed. As soon as his contract was up though he took a one year deal that paid him more than the combined salaries of Patrick Ewing and Horace Grant who were the next two highest paid players at the time.
Jordan took less money for yrs. He was making 50 mill on endorsements. When no one made 2 mill. He let Kukoc, Grant, Pippen, Rodman all get paid since he was getting his thru endorsements. You are not informed. More than any superstar. He always looked out for his teammates.
Unlike Bron who has NEVER taken a dollar less…….
link to hoopshype.com
You make it sound as if Jordan has a choice. Jordan was under an 8 year contract, he couldn’t get a bigger salary until it was over.
LeBron on the hand took $15 million less over the length of his 6 year deal with Miami so the Heat could sign some vets for depth. He also signed for less when he went back to the Cavs than he could’ve with the Heat because the Cavs didn’t have his bird rights. Same thing when he went to L.A.
An eight yr contract is for the Bulls sake. Jordan made the Bulls. He could have renegotiated any yr. Cause he was underpaid. That’s what they did in those yrs. Jordan let everyone get paid. When was Bron not the highest paid player on his team. Bird rights is not even in play here. That’s gotta be the most ridiculous argument yet. The reason NJ got two yrs at 60 mill. Cause he took less for yrs. Never renegotiated. The team did it. Choice you say …… if anyone has a choice it’s MJ. He chose to stay quiet and let his mates get paid. No one in the history of this game. Would have done that ….. and Bron proves it every yr.
At the time Jordan signed that eight year contract it made him one of the highest paid players in the league. He couldn’t renegotiate because he chose the security of an 8 year contract. He didn’t have a player option.
Yes other players in the history of the game actually chose to take less money for the good of the team. Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki signed deals way under their market value. In fact Ginobli and Parker both signed smaller contracts then they could have to stay with the Spurs. Those players chose to take less, not MJ.
link to clutchpoints.com
The only time Jordan ever took less money than he could get was with WSH. In fact, he was fairly ruthless his last 2 seasons with CHI when there was no cap/max ceiling on his contract, demanding historic salary figures in each of those seasons. 30 and 33 mm salaries (more than 2/3rds of all the salary he would earn as an NBA player). The salary cap at the time was 24 mm. Jordan’s salary demands (which he could have raised to 36 mm the next season) were among the reasons that those CHI teams were broken up.
MJ, in his first 13 seasons in the NBA he never earned more than $3m. He demanded they pay him the last two seasons for all his sacrifices. Even if you include the last two high salary seasons, his average annual salary was under $3m per season. LeBron James earned more in his last two seasons than MJ earned in his entire NBA career.
@FastEddie – Are you really comparing salaries from different eras like it’s meaningful-? Don’t, because it isn’t.
Yes, Jordan was making up for lost time, BUT his prior salaries had nothing to do with voluntary sacrifices. Prior to his last two seasons, Jordan was operating under a contract he requested (demanded) and CHI gave him mid-way through his rookie deal.
@DXC – and he deserved every penny. He only won championships during that time as the greatest to ever play the game.
@padam – Sure, but the point is he didn’t “take less” to help the team stay together. As claimed.
He got paid that. Cause he increased the Bulls value. And was owed for all the yrs he took less. He never renegotiated for more money. When he could off. There was a time for yrs he was the 4th highest paid Bull.
link to hoopshype.com
MJ did re-negotiate his rookie deal with CHI. At his request, CHI agreed to rip up the last 3 years of his deal and more than double his salary immediately. But he had to agree to 8 years. He did, and lived up it. He did not hold out or otherwise pull the stunts that modern players do to get what he wanted. But, of course, that nonsense would never have been tolerated at that time, yes, even by the game’s biggest star. The notion that you can sign a contract and then proceed to ignore it is a modern concept.
“MJ took major salary discounts to keep a powerhouse team together.”
*Mj forcefully broke up a powerhouse to make a fool of himself in baseball…you forgot that line
Mj wasn’t around at 40 bc he smoked cigars and gambled all night and possibly got his pops murked
Lbj treats his body like a temple
Attacking morals ? Lbj is a family man, Mj was a habitual cheater
MJ was a D-dag off the court by all accounts, if he was around today all the white Knights here woulda ate him up day after day
You tell em … I’m not even an MJ fan.
“Jordan took salary discounts” what a complete lie. He literally leveraged them to give him what he wanted by threatening to go sign with the Knicks haha I swear you Jordan disciples will say anything facts be damned!
What a load of phoney baloney. Looks like you’re Fast Eddie’s new hero. You guys are like two peas in a pod. Gobble, gobble.
Congrats to Laker fans! You may well get another 5 years of LeBron at “Max” $$$$$ …. He is now gonna use the Lakers, and the end of his career to cobble together some extra cash to put toward the Las Vegas franchise. Watch the “marketing” campaign this dude will put on to try and get this franchise. Hopefully, another minority will attempt to put an ownership group together. However, LeBron is gonna make it known that he is gonna try to make major problems if he don’t get that franchise.
Lebron doesn’t have enough money to buy a franchise. You need $3.5B to begin negotiations. His net worth is around $600M but can’t use it all on buying a team. He needs money to maintain his lifestyle. If he had retired 10 years ago, he could have bought a franchise for $500M. By the time he retires, a $500M investment by LeBron in a team would give him a 15 percent minority ownership. He thought that playing more years, he could buy a team cash, but it backfired on him. If he had retired and bought the Bucks in 2014 for $550M, he’d be worth 6 times what’s he’s worth today.
Lmao so Eddie hasn’t watched basketball lately.
Dude is averaging 25-7-7 in his age 39/40 year and you still just bitching for no reason, clown
Look at his team, the Lakers are one loss away from being in 10th in the West. LeBron is a stat chaser. Cares more about stat padding his stats than winning games. All he cares about is get a BIG paycheck. If he really wanted to win, he’d take a team friendly contract so they could sign quality players. He’s more into his movie production company than winning another NBA title. if you think otherwise, he’s got you fooled too.
Only averaging 25ppg, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists per game… this guy is clearly a has-been, with those pedestrian numbers.
Send him to the GLeague so he can learn how to play!
Let him walk
The Lakers will pay him and continue to be mediocre.
Lakers have 2031 first round pick available.
Lakers are not mediocre next season.
They’ve been mediocre since 2010.
Don’t let facts get in the way of another nonsensical comment from Sillivan
Teams are lining up for that 2031 1st rounder- great class of 6th graders this year
Absolute Facts!
I’d love to see A 5 man gsw group with Green LeBron, Kuminga, Pods, Curry, that would be fun
Warriors would have to do include Wiggins and Green to make it work. Or resign Klay and trade Klay and Wiggins. They’ll have no money left to sign quality players. Owner says he doesn’t want to stay in the luxury tax penalty area anymore. He’s paid $500M in luxury tax in the last 4 years.
25/7/8 is impressive no matter what age the player is. Approaching 40, that’s even considered more of an achievement than the rest of his stuff he has accomplished. I honestly do not see him retiring until he wins another title and matches Kobe/Magic/Duncan. Scoring? Yeah LBJ’s always been one of the top notch scorers in NBA history (7th currently). His overall play doesn’t translate into wins anymore. I see him taking a 3/150M deal, and crippling this team’s chances for 2025-2027.
He can’t defend anymore. He’ll be 40 this year. He’ll fall off a cliff soon.
Correct. I saw him in the first half yesterday guarding Bol Bol while KD was on the floor. He has literally stopped trying to be a defensive player. If he’s so busy focused on offense, he should just suit up for the Rams and play TE. Problem solved for everyone.
You hope and pray LBJ will fall off a cliff. Meanwhile, Jordan is overweight with a sizable gut on him and is turning more gray by the day. That pudgy face on Jordan is repulsive.
It’s all good, the lakers won the offseason and the in-season tournament
As is always the case with LeBron, the marketing angle plays a big role here. He certainly wouldn’t be worth anywhere near that amount based on production alone, but when you factor in the off-court stuff it’s a different ballgame. So even if the Lakers may knowingly continue to be mid for the foreseeable future, it may not alter their gameplan.
On the other side of the coin, letting LeBron leave—even if the most sensible move at this point—would likely land the franchise in hot water with the casuals and the (irrational) emotionally-driven parts of the fanbase. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t to a degree.
And it all points to LeBron staying.
Time for a rebuild. Lakers are a below average team. They are barely a play-in team at this point, but they could fall out of that position. They have a difficult schedule the rest of the way.
I agree, but am also not optimistic the Lakers will take that plunge.
You cannot build a competitive team around any single player that makes $60M/Yr…unless the NBA doubles the cap.
LeBron is the one who led the way for top players to get “max” contracts …. Rather than getting a set $$$ figure. They instead get like 35% of the salary cap. LeBron and his homie, Anthony Davis, who just let Nurkic grab 22 rebounds, will each be getting that.
While he deserves as much money as he can get because of the fans he generates, why is he going this route when it will lessen what they can put around him? He’s made more than enough money, and gets the benefit of sponsorships, etc that will be huge still.
He’s LeBron. You can accomodate that only for special cases. Well, this Is a special case. If he’s willing to continue, Lakers should do it. Anyways, nine figure for three years doesn’t Equal 60 m a year. It could be from 33+ m onwards.
I guess using a second round pick on Bronny won’t move the needle much. That, if he’s drafted whatsoever. May get better and be drafted in the first round, or get undrafted and sign as a free agent. Predicting that now Is impossible.
If I’m the Lakers, I’d keep LeBron
Let him go. Dude doesn’t play D and clearly prioritising money over winning. Not a top 10 player, not even the best player on his team. Nobody else would give him $60 million at this stage.
Great Googly Moogly
I’m just waiting for the first LeBron vs. Bronny match-up. Bronny fouls out in the first half after repeated flops by dada.
They will both be playing for the Lakers.
I hope some team uses a spite 2nd round pick on Bronny
This place is crawling with Lebron/Laker haters. You clowns would knock your crippled old granny over trying to get down the basement to your computer to fire off another Lebron attack comment. Do you guys grin and pat yourself on the back congratulating yourself on another clever dart flipped at the Lakers displaying your waggish, jocular persona? You know, real Laker fans are well aware of the team’s shortcomings without somebody harping on and on about them and quite often jumping the fence between real facts and contrived garbage. Just sayin’. Btw, one must wonder how your favorite team is coming along.
If I understand correctly, the son is still a freshman at UCLA. Has he already established himself as a legitimate NBA prospect?
He’s 4 years away from being 4 years away
… from an early retirement
His son is at USC and no he hasn’t even remotely established himself as a legitimate NBA prospect. He isn’t even good enough to start in college.
Trade Bron.
I love how the write-up points out his stats. Westbrook had better numbers at one time and didn’t win anything. While writing that for someone his age is still productive, that only applies in theory based on the stats. The fact he has another elite star along side him and can’t win anything since the pandemic shortened season, I’d say he’s past his time of leading and perhaps be better as a third wheel.
Bron has to be the greediest star ever. Has take every cent he can get. Not hating. Just truth …., telling
9 figures? easy 3yr 100 mil. 33.3 mil a yr. done.
Well that window will definitely close…
After the bubble title Lebron should of seen the writing on the wall and started taking less to facilitate cap room for the Lakers in order to compete in the twilight if his career…
Lakers would be dumb to sign him to anymore than 30m a year… Unless it’s a declining contract…
In a league where Jordan Poole makes 32 a year thinking Lebron deserves less than 30 is crazy.
Also taking less money gets him nothing. If he takes less and wins people will use that against him and say Jordan and Kobe never took less. If he makes the max people kill him for not taking a discount for the team. It’s a lose lose proposition.
People will use ANYTHING…
All that matters is another ring… A ring late in his career would aid his Kingly needs to be proclaimed the GOAT…
There’s always been overpays in the NBA… The GOAT was only the top paid player on the Bulls for a few titles…
The Lakers need a reshuffle to compete and they ain’t gonna get the pieces if LeBron is taking up too much cap space… They ain’t signing stars, they need more room to make trades…
The whole point was Kobe and Jordan never took less once they got the money. Jordan wasn’t the highest paid but he also didn’t get to 30 million and then go sign for 5 so the bulls could win. Also there are no trades the Lakers are making to make themselves championship level regardless of what lebron makes.
That’s not how “ cap room “ works my guy
They had the full Mle last year , most true contenders would love to have that device at their hands
Hoops rumors offers great tutorials in their glossary if your interested in knowing how the cap works
He is going to get the contract because whatever franchise has him in his last year is making bank. The tickets for his farewell year is going to be worth his contract.
if they give a 39 year old Lebron a 3 year super max… they are going back to Kobe’s last few years
Just make him a part owner already.