LeBron James will play a historic 23rd NBA season after exercising a $53 million player option to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2025–26 campaign, according to his agent, Rich Paul.
At 40, James becomes the first player in NBA history to reach 23 seasons, surpassing the record he currently shares with Vince Carter. Paul told ESPN that James is determined to chase a fifth NBA title, while balancing the Lakers’ focus on long-term rebuilding.
“He knows the Lakers are building for the future,” Paul said. “But he wants a real shot at winning now. Every season left in his career matters.”
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 42,184 points, is just 50 regular-season games away from breaking Robert Parish’s record for most games played (1,611). In 2023, he famously surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s long-standing points total of 38,387.
Drafted first overall in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, James won two championships with the Miami Heat before delivering Cleveland its first NBA title in 2016. He joined the Lakers in 2018 and led them to the 2020 championship, earning his fourth NBA Finals MVP award.
In a landmark moment during the 2024 season, LeBron and his son Bronny James made history as the first father-son duo to share the court in an NBA game, following Bronny’s draft by the Lakers.
