As expected, LeBron James will return to the Los Angeles Lakers next season. As reported by ESPN, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer will sign a two-year, $104 million deal that includes a no-trade clause and a player option for the second season.
This comes a week after his eldest son, Bronny, was selected in the second round of the NBA Draft with the 55th pick. The Lakers have signed him to his rookie contract, which will pay him $7.9 million over four years, a league source told ESPN. The Jameses will be the first father-son duo to play together on an NBA team.
Under the current league CBA, the 39-year-old James was eligible to sign the maximum length of three years, as the labor bylaws limit the length for players aged 38 and up. However, this new deal is essentially a year-to-year agreement that could allow James to become a free agent again in 2025.
On June 29, James formally opted out of his previous deal, which would have paid him $51.4 million for the 2024-25 NBA season. He initially joined the Lakers on a four-year, $154 million deal as a free agent in 2018, then signed a two-year, $97.1 million extension in 2022 that included a player option for the upcoming season.
Selected No. 1 in the famed 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron is a four-time league MVP and four-time NBA Finals MVP. After seven seasons with the Cavs, the Akron, Ohio, native infamously left his hometown team for the Miami Heat, where he played in four straight NBA Finals, winning two titles in the process. Opting out of his deal in Miami—the first of several times he’s taken advantage of such a clause in his contract—James returned to northern Ohio in 2014 and led the Cavs to their first and only NBA championship in 2016.
Few athletes have ever lived up to top billing like LeBron, and he’s leveraged such fame to become one of the most prominent American sports figures of his generation. Combining on-court salary and endorsem*nts, James is fifth in Sportico’s 50 highest-paid athletes of all-time, with career earnings of $1.3 billion (and counting).
In 2018, James opted out of his contract with Cleveland to sign with the Lakers and has spent six seasons wearing the “Forum Blue and Gold,” which has included winning the NBA title in 2020 and the inaugural NBA Cup for the In-Season Tournament in 2023. However, this seventh campaign will be among the most scrutinized of his legendary career. Not only will James play alongside Bronny but he’ll be playing under his third head coach in Los Angeles in his former podcasting partner JJ Redick. Interestingly enough, should LeBron choose to play beyond 2025, he could be a free agent when his youngest son, Bryce James, becomes draft eligible ahead of the 2026-27 season.
While everything has come up roses for James this week, there’s one thing he won’t be able to do this upcoming season or any other—become an active player-owner with the rival Boston Celtics.
(This story was updated in the second paragraph to include details of Bronny James’ rookie contract, as reported by ESPN.)
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