Lakers insider gives insight into when we’ll know it’s the ‘final march’ of LeBron’s career

ESPN’s Dave McMenamin provided fans with information regarding how Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will handle the end of his NBA tenure.

“I wouldn’t start looking at it like this is gonna be — the clock is starting to tick down on his career, where he would walk away from the Lakers and retire because they struggled throughout the season,” McMenamin said on the subject of what could happen if the Lakers were to get off to a slow start to the season. “He’s gonna be on his own timeline, and I think when it’s the final march of LeBron — perhaps final march rather than last dance — we’re all gonna know. We’re all gonna know, and it’s gonna be must-see TV. It’s gonna be the LeBron tour comin’ to town throughout the 28 NBA cities, culminating in a spectacular farewell.”

The halcyon days of James’ NBA career are likely already behind him. At 39 years old, he’s the oldest player in the league, and he’s going to get even older later this year. On Dec. 30, James will turn 40.

But while James is probably past his prime at this stage of his career, he’s also still one of the game’s premier players and didn’t show any signs of slowing down last season.

Across 71 games during the 2023-24 regular season, he led the Lakers in points (25.7), assists (8.3) and steals (1.3) while also averaging the second-most rebounds per game (7.3) on the team.

To boot, James had a career year shooting the ball from 3-point range in his 21st NBA season. He knocked down a career-high 41.0 percent of his looks from deep.

The only other season of James’ career when he shot 40-plus percent from 3 came during the 2012-13 campaign when he was a member of the Miami Heat. James shot 40.6 from 3-point range during the season in question, though he attempted only 3.3 3s per game compared to 5.1 last season.

James may be pushing 40, but the fact that he has continued to play at a high level as he’s aged indicates that he still has some gas left in the tank.

Still, whether the Lakers will make the most of James’ remaining time in the league is still unclear. Los Angeles won a title in 2020, which came during the forward’s second season with the storied franchise. However, since the Lakers climbed the NBA’s mountaintop at the start of the decade, Los Angeles hasn’t even made an NBA Finals appearance since then.

On top of that, the Lakers were sent home in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.

Lakers fans are surely holding out hope that James still has plenty of great seasons ahead of him in the NBA.