LeBron James, Please Don't Retire

Did LeBron James just play in his final basketball game? The Los Angeles Lakers were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in round two of the Western Conference Playoffs. It was an unceremonious ending to his 23rd NBA season. Will there be a 24th?

“I don’t know what the future holds for me, obviously,” James said Monday night shortly after the Lakers’ season ended. “As it stands right now tonight, I’ve got a lot of time. I’ll sit back like I think I said last year after we lost to Minnesota, I’ll go back and recalibrate with my family and talk with them and spend some time with them. When the time comes, obviously, you guys will know what I decide to do.”

Please, LeBron. Don’t do it. The golf course can wait. We need more LeBron James in the NBA.

Many of you probably disagree with that sentiment. LeBron James has accrued an army of haters over his decades in the limelight. I get it. He’s kind of a cornball, he flops, and he used his power to get the Lakers to draft his son. If you’re ready to move on from LeBron, by all means, but I cannot let this be the end of the LeBron James era of basketball.

In no means would you ever categorize me as a “LeBron Stan.” The 2016 NBA Finals might be the only time I’ve ever vehemently cheered for the man. But there is one undeniable fact that I can’t shake.

When LeBron James retires, it will force me to directly face mortality in a way that I never have before.

For almost as long as I can remember, I’ve watched LeBron James play basketball. High school basketball games regularly air on the Worldwide Leader, but that was not the case in 2002 when ESPN sent Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale, and Jay Bilas to broadcast St. Vincent-St. Mary’s basketball. It was appointment television for a group of 12-year-olds in my next-door neighbor’s basement. The hype surrounding the “next Michael Jordan” was unprecedented.

He took that hype to the NBA and was even better than advertised. Despite all of the noise, LeBron never let it get to him. His biggest controversy to date is the Hummer his mother purchased for him before he was finished with high school basketball. Instead of being crushed by the hype, he became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Incredible.

Like all of us, LeBron James is imperfect, yet he has been consistently extraordinary for decades. When he went to Los Angeles to pursue one more title, a guy I shared a geology class with at Kentucky helped him win one in the Bubble. Now, like LeBron, I’m a middle-aged bald Dad. Yet he is still dunking on fools at 41-years-old.

PLAYERS AGE 41 OR OLDER
NBA Playoff History

LeBron James (this season) …….. 232 points
All non-LeBron players (ever) ….. 212 points

(via @Stathead)

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) May 12, 2026

Even if you hate him, you love to hate him. LeBron James has been a constant in the basketball world for a very long time, and the basketball world isn’t ready for that to end.

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