James’s longevity allowed him to achieve a cherished dream this season, playing alongside son Bronny James as they became the first father-son duo to play together in a regular-season game.
The Lakers’ decision to draft the largely untried Bronny James — whose collegiate career was disrupted by a frightening heart attack that revealed a congenital heart defect — sparked backlash.
But James said in September that the chance to play alongside his son, and his role in helping the United States defend their Olympic title in Paris, had reinvigorated him.
“Gives you a lot of life,” James said, and that’s surely just what the Lakers wanted to hear from the player who signed a new two-year contract worth a reported $100 million in July.
Whether he’ll go on that long remains to be seen. James’s interests off the court are constantly expanding. As a partner in the Fenway Sports Group that owns Liverpool FC, James has shares in the English Premiership club as well as Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins.
His entertainment firm the SpringHill Company has made him a player in Hollywood and Forbes estimates that James is the first basketball player to become a billionaire ($1.2 billion) during his career.
When his playing days are over, James has said, he wants to become an NBA owner, preferably in Las Vegas.
Sustained excellence
But first there’s the pursuit of a fifth title.
James won back-to-back titles with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013, then returned to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers and led them to the crown in 2016.
But he hasn’t won a ring since 2020, when the Lakers triumphed in the league’s “Covid bubble” in Orlando.
The Lakers have since been disappointing, reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2023, but being eliminated in the first round of the play-offs last spring.
They have struggled to build momentum this season and James looked his age as he battled through a shooting slump that saw him miss all 19 of his three-point attempts in one four-game stretch.
