Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Tues, Jun 30, ESPN broke the news that LeBron James informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he intends to play elsewhere for the 2026-27 NBA season, which will serve as his 24th and perhaps final season in his storied NBA career. LeBron was with the Lakers for eight seasons and they achieved only one NBA Finals appearance and championship in the bubble in 2020. James played with plenty of great players around him in L.A, most notably Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic. After dealing with injuries that slowed him down and limited him to 60 games in the 2025-26 regular season, LeBron tried his best to lead an injury-hampered Lakers squad in the playoffs but his efforts were not enough to prevent a Second Round sweep at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now after playing the longest stint in one city in his NBA career, King James is moving on and he could take his talents to a once unexpected destination.

The free agency window in the NBA is now open and for the first time in eight years, LeBron is an unrestricted free agent. After the Lakers’ front office announced that Austin Reaves intends to sign a four-year, $185 million deal with the franchise and the return of DeAndre Ayton(who opted into his player option) along with the pursuit of another center in the free agent market, it was clear that the money was not there to re-sign LeBron to another one-year contract. Now, James will consider his options and the most likely place for him to go to is San Francisco, where the Golden State Warriors have more than enough cap space to sign the King to a one-year deal worth enough money to satisfy him. LeBron has played against the Warriors in five playoff series, including four straight NBA Finals from 2015-18 when he was in his second stint with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. James has good relationships with the oldest players on the Warriors still remaining from their dynasty years in Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, the latter of whom opted out of his player option worth $27 million. And with Steve Kerr returning on a new deal to coach the Warriors, a LeBron move up the Pacific coastline of California makes incredible sense. There was a time when any team would sacrifice a limb to sign LeBron, who is the last remaining player of his draft class and the generation of players to break into the league in the first few years of the 21st century. James averaged 21 points, six rebounds and seven assists in his 60 games this past season in Los Angeles and for a player turning 42 years old at the end of this calendar year, those are some impressive numbers. If there is one thing the Warriors need, it’s more efficient ball handling and they have not had a player of that caliber who can lead fast breaks down the court so effectively in a long time. Complementing the three-point shooting offense of Golden State that is spearheaded by the greatest three-point shooter of all-time in Curry, LeBron would play an important role on a Warriors team that includes Jimmy Butler(coming off an ACL injury suffered last season), Kristaps Porzingis(signed to a two-year contract), Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Gary Payton II and De’Anthony Melton. LeBron could be a starter or an efficient bench player on the Warriors, depending on his health, minute restrictions(aka load management) and the coaching staff’s preference on a weekly basis.

It is safe to say that the dormant dynasty in Golden State might not be resurrected even if LeBron signs there. But the Warriors would most certainly be on track improve their record from the past couple of seasons, which has rendered them with mediocre finishes in the Western Conference standings that have required them to compete in the NBA Play-In Tournament in the past two seasons. As for the post-LeBron era for the Lakers, they are well set to pursue a new future of potential championship glory with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves leading the way. There could be an acquisition of a big man in free agency as Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren, who is a restricted free agent, visited recently with the Lakers and Sacramento Kings. Duren could stay in Detroit or he could decide to join a team that had a less dramatic second-round exit than his Pistons did.

Whether the Lakers improve on their fourth-place finish in the West and are able to challenge the heavyweight teams in the conference without LeBron James on their roster is currently unknown. But one thing is for certain: this departure of a superstar player from the Purple & Gold is a rare event that really hasn’t happened that much in franchise history. Usually when the Lakers have signed franchise stars via free agency or draft them with lucky draft trades(i.e Magic Johnson in 1979 and Kobe Bryant in 1996), they stay Lakers for the rest of their careers. But LeBron’s exit can only compare to the trades of two big men who have called L.A home in this 21st century. Those are Shaquille O’Neal in 2004 and Anthony Davis in the middle of the 2025 season. O’Neal wanted to be traded off the team because of his complicated relationship with Bryant and the front office under Mitch Kupchak traded the Big Diesel to the Miami Heat, who won a title with Shaq two years later. In the Davis situation, the return was more worth it as the inexplicable exchange between the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks landed them Luka Doncic and Dallas got the oft-injured big man and Max Christie in return. Davis is no longer on the Mavericks and could potentially reunite with LeBron in San Francisco if there is an open spot for him to take a pay cut.

LeBron’s Laker legacy might be defined in many ways, but one of them is surely to be all of the all-time records that he broke that might never be broken again. Passing Kareem Abdul-Jabaar on Feb 7, 2023 for the all-time lead in points scored in the regular season in NBA history and doing it on the home floor of Crypto.com Arena with Kareem present is definitely at the top of the list. Scoring 40,000 career regular season points on Mar 2, 2024 against the Denver Nuggets is also a high one. Then this past season, LeBron became the best player in terms of playing the most regular season games in NBA history in passing Boston Celtics legend Robert Parrish and also had a patch dedicated to his 23rd season in the National Basketball Association, extending a record that might never be broken. There is also the fact that the King got to play some minimal minutes over the past two seasons with his eldest son named after him in LeBron “Bronny” James Jr, who was drafted in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft out of USC. Although his numbers struggled in his rookie season and he was more efficient playing for the South Bay Lakers, Bronny had extended opportunities in his second season to play on the main team and not only play in “garbage time” minutes but also in significant game situations due to injuries to some of the Lakers key players. Bronny even got to play some minutes in the first round series against the Houston Rockets with his old man, who ended up throwing him an assist on a full-court pass. Bronny also gave his dad an assist on an open three-point shot later in that Game 3 at the Toyota Center in Houston. Whatever happens to Bronny next(stays with the Lakers or gets dealt to whichever team LeBron signs with) is unknown, but the moment on Oct 22, 2024 on the Opening night game in downtown L.A is something that both father and son and everyone who was present, including their entire family, will never forget.

LeBron James might not have his jersey number retired in the rafters at Crypto.com Arena(it was still called STAPLES Center in the first few seasons of LeBron’s time and also LeBron changed his number to 6 for two seasons due to Space Jam: A New Legacy marketing issues) or receive a statue outside the arena at Star Plaza. Heck, even some Lakers fans resented giving the title of the “King of L.A” to LeBron because they felt that the title belonged to Kobe Bryant, who sadly passed away in a helicopter crash many miles west of the city on Jan 26, 2020(the night before, James passed Bryant for third place on the All-Time NBA Scoring List in Philadelphia, the Black Mamba’s hometown). But LeBron James will be celebrated for helping restore the championship expectations of the greatest franchise in the modern NBA era after six or so years of some of the worst seasons in franchise history. In spite of playing his mid-thirties to early forties in Los Angeles, LeBron ranks in the top ten in quite a few Lakers’ franchise marks. He scored 12.402 points wearing a Purple & Gold jersey, which is the tenth most of all-time and probably the most for any free agent signing not named Kareem Abdul-Jabaar or Shaquille O’Neal. LeBron had 3,808 assists as a Laker and that ranks fifth all-time in franchise history, behind legendary names such as Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Norm Nixon and Kobe Bryant. The King made 4,861 shots in the games he played with the Lakers, and that ranks tenth all-time. Trailing behind some of the names mentioned below, LeBron did this in a wild eight-year period where a couple of seasons were altered due to a global pandemic. And finally, James made 1,020 three-point field goals, which is the second most in Lakers history. We can all probably name who is on the top of that list. Even though his three-point shooting percentage took a massive dip in recent years, LeBron still made a lot of threes in a Lakers jersey.

Winning a championship ring with a third different franchise was a key accomplishment for LeBron, who will probably never match or surpass the one man he is compared to the most in terms of championship success in Michael Jordan, who retired for good from basketball the same year James was drafted out of St. Vincent, St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. The end of LeBron’s career could come in a farewell tour next season and it will be filled with plenty of adoration and celebration. That hasn’t been the case in the NBA since Kobe’s farewell tour in his 20th season in 2015-16. Unlike the Black Mamba, LeBron will have that farewell tour occur on another team and likely to be his fourth different franchise that he will wear a jersey and gym shorts for in his legendary career. Whatever happens next for the King will be determined by the basketball gods, whom always win in being aligned with Father Time. This inevitable move of both the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron Raymone James Sr parting ways has now occurred and there is no love lost between both him and the fanbase of the Purple & Gold. May this next season prove a good one to King James, wherever he might go, but hopefully not better than that of the Lakers, who are officially in another new era in their grand basketball history.