LeBron had a candid chat with the NBA media on his 40th birthday about his career.
“I had a decade of the 30s, so to just wake up and just be like, ‘Oh shoot, oh damn, you’re 40?’” James said. “It’s kind of laughable, really, to know where I am, to see where I am still playing the game at a high level, still being such a young man but old in the scheme of how many years I got in this profession.”
Teasing everyone, LeBron says he could continue to play for a lot longer, but he won’t.
“To be honest, if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level probably for about another — it’s weird that I might say this — but probably about another five to seven years, if I wanted to,” James said. “But I’m not going to do that.”
The Lakers great was then asked if the Lakers winning a chip would motivate him to keep playing.
“You ask that question, the first person I thought about was Jason Kelce,” James said, referring to the former Philadelphia Eagles center who now works as an NFL analyst for ESPN. “Earlier this year, he had a sit-down [interview] with [Eagles quarterback] Jalen Hurts talking about that same factor, the fact that [the Eagles are] extremely good this year and have you had the thought of coming back and maybe not retiring? Of course [he has]. But he’s very happy with the decision he’s made.”
He is still high on the purple and gold, despite the team holding a 18-14 record on the season and seventh seed in the West.
“Right now, I think we’re a very good team,” James said. “I think we have a chance to compete with anybody in the league. Are we at a championship level? Can we win a championship right now? No, I don’t think so. But that’s good because we have so much room for improvement.
“I don’t know if that determines if I stick around longer because it doesn’t change my career in any sense or fashion.”
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