LeBron James signed a two-year extension with the Lakers, which will pay him $46.9 million in 2023–24, and gives him a player option for more than $50 million in 2024–25. While there is plenty of speculation as to where the legendary forward will end his career—and whether he’ll have the opportunity to play with his son Bronny James in the NBA—Lakers owner Jeanie Buss made her feelings about the King clear in an interview with Sports Illustrated‘s Howard Beck.
“With LeBron, we have a line of communication between the two of us, and he knows that he can reach me any time and vice-versa,” she said on The Crossover podcast. “And I think he feels appreciated. I know I appreciated that he signed an extension to stay here and continue to lead the Laker team. He’s a fantastic leader both on and off the court, and I feel like we’re blessed to have him as a Laker. I want to see him retire as a Laker.”
While James’s four-year run with the Lakers has experienced significant ups and downs, he cemented his place in franchise lore by winning the 2020 NBA Finals, and taking home that year’s Finals MVP award. He will also have the chance to break one of the league’s most hallowed records with the Lakers, something that is very significant to Buss.
“We have something that is coming up, which is he will probably become the all-time leading scorer in the history of the NBA, which would break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record. Which, I’ll never forget when he did that, and Chick Hearn said, ‘This is a record that will never be broken,’ and here we are, somebody who is going to break it in a Laker uniform. And that has a lot of meaning to the organization, and to me personally,” Buss said.
James is currently second all-time in league scoring with 37,062 points in 1,366 games. Abdul-Jabbar scored a record 38,387 points in 1,560 games over his career. At his career average of 27.1 points per game, James is about 49 games away from breaking the NBA record, so it is very likely that the incredible milestone will come midway through the 2022–23 season.
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