LeBron James has signed an extension to his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, which was due to expire at the end of next season. The signature links him to the franchise for two more years, until 2024, in which he will receive 97.1 million dollars. It also includes a player option for the 2024-25 campaign. This move makes him the player who has earned the most money in his career, a total of 532 million dollars guaranteed, thus surpassing Kevin Durant. What could be great news, retaining one of the NBA's greatest legends for two more years, is received with discrepancies and negativity by the Los Angeles parish.
For starters, this deal goes way beyond a simple extension. In addition to the points mentioned, another of the measures that the Lakers accept when proposing this operation is what is known in league jargon as a trade kicker. It is a clause by which the team, in the event of a transfer, must pay the player a certain percentage of his salary, in this case 15%. Considering the high amount that LeBron James will receive, this measure ties him to the franchise practically until he decides to put an end to it.
In addition, as Adrian Wojnarowski, an ESPN journalist who made the operation public, explains, James could not enter into any transfer during the next season, since the second year of his extension exceeds a 5% salary increase. He, too, could not have signed an extension beyond two seasons, since he will be over 38 years old when his current contract expires and NBA regulations prohibit players of that age from extending their ties with their franchises for a period. higher.
These are the terms of the operation carried out by the unstable Lakers, who failed to enter the playoffs last season. LeBron averaged more than 30 points in the 56 games he was able to play between all his injuries, but it wasn't enough. A Russell Westbrook without a place in the team and with a difficult exit, an Anthony Davis who does not get regularity due to his physical problems and a squad without the young pieces and the secondary ones that any competitive project requires lead analysts specialized in the Los Angeles franchise and many followers to criticize the effort they are putting into fulfilling James' whims.
Now, the Lakers can estimate how long they will have LeBron on their roster. In 2024, his son Bronny James will be eligible for the draft, and he has already expressed a desire to team up with him numerous times before retiring. Everything indicates that he will decline his player option to become a free agent and try to sign for the franchise that takes his son. The expiration date of the Akron contract affects the franchise's decisions on what to do with Westbrook, trade him before the market closes or exhaust his relationship with the team to create salary space in 2023. It also forces the board to decide between save the first two rounds of 2027 and 2029 or trade them to give LeBron a competitive team in the short term.
The main criticism from analysts such as Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke is that "this would be a brilliant move for a title contender, but the Lakers right now aren't." "An organization in need of a massive rebuild, lacking in youth and depth, has just bet its luck on a man who will play his last guaranteed season at age 39," the journalist opines. Los Angeles remain, with this movement, stuck in a project that has already reached its peak with the 2020 title and that, since then, has done nothing but fall in each of its attempts to continue winning in the short term.
LeBron James will complete, if nothing changes, six seasons with the Lakers. For a player who, at his peak, was willing to change projects according to his aspirations and the possibilities they offered him to win the ring, this is a very representative move. The comfort of living in Los Angeles is one of the factors that, at this point in his career, leads LeBron to stay there based on the low expectations placed on the franchise at the sports level right now. In addition, with his sights set on Bronny's arrival in the league and his desire to play with him, James is the clear winner of an extension that leaves no one indifferent.
