The Los Angeles Lakers centered their 2025 offseason around Luka Dončić, not LeBron James, and understandably so. Their priorities shifted when Luka essentially fell into their laps at the February deadline. Los Angeles checked off its top to-do on its offseason list, signing Luka to a three-year, $165 million extension, but the team didn't approach LeBron about an extension.
LeBron exercised his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season, so he's on an expiring contract for the first time in his career. Although the decision not to extend him felt wrong, given that he is LeBron James, it was the right move. The first quarter of the season has proven that much.
The soon-to-be 41-year-old didn't make his 2025-26 debut until Nov. 18, as he missed nearly the first month of the season with an irritated sciatic nerve. In the six games LeBron has played this season, he's looked every bit of his age. He isn't moving well and is a negative on the defensive end, but again, this is his 23rd NBA season. You can't hold off Father Time forever.
Lakers made the right decision not to extend LeBron James
The last time that LeBron signed an extension with Los Angeles was in 2024, a two-year, $104 million contract with a no-trade clause. His salary this season is the 12th most in the league, a little over half a million less than Devin Booker, who signed a mega two-year, $145 million extension with the Suns over the offseason.
LeBron certainly earned the right to be one of the highest-paid NBA players of all time, but the next contract that he signs, assuming that this season won't be his last, won't be the high-paid deal that he's used to. That will undoubtedly be the case if his body continues to struggle to keep up with a league with teams that have emphasized playing at a faster pace.
Perhaps that will change as the season progresses, and LeBron continues to get his legs under him after missing the first part of the season.
Rob Pelinka made it clear that the Lakers want LeBron to retire with the organization, whenever that may happen, so it's not like LA's decision not to extend the superstar this past season meant that it doesn't want him around.
When LeBron picked up his option over the summer, his agent, Rich Paul, released a statement that said LeBron understood that LA was preparing for the future, but that he valued a "realistic chance of winning it all." It read as if LeBron was contemplating requesting a trade, but that didn't happen. It just so happens that he is in a good position to win another title, even with the Lakers prioritizing future financial flexibility, as the team is currently second in the West with a 16-5 record.
Los Angeles' offseason looks a lot better now than it did a couple of months ago, to a lot of people.