Plaschke: Is LeBron James planning to retire? Maybe, and that could be a Laker mess

Of all the reams of words publicly spilled at Lakers media day Monday, only one really mattered.

When LeBron James was wrapping up his interview with the folks at Spectrum Sportsnet, host Chris McGee asked, “By the way, see you at next yearâ€s media day?â€

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James†laughing answer set the template for a season.

“Maybe.â€

So the Lakers should treat the next eight months emptying their assets and foregoing their future and playing with the desperation of a team trying to earn one last piece of jewelry for arguably the greatest player ever?

Maybe.

So should the fans here and around the league show up in droves and line up around the block for their last live look at a living legend?

Maybe.

Or, if everything goes wrong and things get ugly, should the Lakers and James willingly part ways through a midseason buyout?

Maybe.

No matter what happens, the fact that James didnâ€t reveal his intentions in his first public appearance since last spring means that this Laker season has the chance to be a murky maybe mess.

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Everybody knows where the Lakers stand, as Rob Pelinka said last week. He wants James to finish his career here.

“We would love if LeBronâ€s story would be he retire a Laker,†Pelinka said. “That would be a positive story.â€

But still nobody knows where James stands, and itâ€s not obvious, because, while heâ€s 40 and entering his NBA-record 23rd season, he looks young, and acts energetic, and Monday at the Lakers facility he was at his charming best.

“Just excited about the journey and whatever this year has in store for me,†he said.

Heâ€s probably not saying because he truly does not know. Next spring is a lifetime away. He doesnâ€t know how heâ€s going to feel. He doesnâ€t know how his basketball future could look.

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But because heâ€s not saying, this season could seemingly go one of three ways.

It could go the Kershaw Way. James could once again be one of the top players in the league but get worn down by the strain on his body and in the last weeks of the season he could call it quits. The Crypto.com crowd gets a chance to say goodbye and his Lakers teammates can use his retirement as inspiration for a deep postseason run.

Or, it could go the Kobe Way. James could decide in the middle of the season that heâ€s had enough and embark on a league-wide farewell tour, the sort that once brought the tough Kobe Bryant to tears.

Or, given the organizationâ€s recent sketchy history, it is entirely possible it could go the Typical Lakers Implosion Way.

LeBron James jokes with reporters as he arrives for interviews at Lakers media day on Monday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

James could spend the year making the Lakers dangle on that “maybe,†subtly fighting against the loss of his team leadership to Luka Doncic, passively aggressively chiding Pelinka to improve the roster at the trade deadline, even occasionally threatening to quit on the spot.

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Because it’s too tough to trade him and the Lakers donâ€t want to spend the bucks to buy him out, they spend the rest of the season dodging his barbs, then, simply let James†contract expire and watch him flee to home Cleveland for his swan song.

Three scenarios, but only two happy endings, and to make matters even more complicated, much depends not on James, but on the roster around him.

Are the Lakers going to be any good? Are you ready for it?

Maybe.

The Lakers only played 23 games with both James and the recently acquired Doncic last season, and they were 15-8 and grabbed a third seed and were acting like the best team in the NBA at one point before they disintegrated against Minnesota in the playoffs.

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They added Deandre Ayton for length, Jake LaRavia for defense, Marcus Smart for toughness, and a new body for Doncic, a formerly pudgy and breathless kid who has acknowledged his very adult transformation.

“Iâ€m in a better place for sure,†he said Monday.

Is that good enough to lead a team to a better place in the competitive West? Who knows?

Will it be good enough to convince James to ask for a new contract and stick around for yet another year? That doesnâ€t seem likely but then again, The Oldest Living Baller currently exists in the unlikely.

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The only certainty is that James is going to make this decision on his own time, in his own voice, through his own podcast or social media or heck, maybe another 30-minute TV special called, “The Last Decision?â€

How ever this plays out, heâ€s not saying anything now, which was obvious when he answered the first question at his media day news conference with dodgy utterances.

“I mean, I don’t know,†he said. “I mean, I’m excited about today, I’m excited about an opportunity to be able to play a game that I love for another season. And whatever the journey, however the journey lays out this year, I’m just super invested, because … I don’t know when the end is, but I know it’s a lot sooner than later.â€

He provided his most telling hint that heâ€s leaning into retirement when he talked about appreciating his final tours around the league.

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“Knowing that the end is soon, not taking for granted, you know, a Tuesday night in a city that maybe I don’t want to be in that night … let’s lock in because you don’t know how many times you get the opportunity to play the game or to be able to compete,†he said. “So there’s times where you wake up and you just feel like you just don’t have it. So those will be the days where I know I can lock back in real fast, like, OK, well, you won’t have many days like this, so let’s lock in and enjoy the moment, enjoy the rest of the ride.â€

Bronny and LeBron James pose for photos at Lakers media day as Rui Hachimura takes a selfie in front of them. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

He was asked if, now that heâ€s played with son Bronny, would he stick around to play with his Arizona-freshman son Bryce? His answer was LeBron at his fatherly best.

“No, I’m not waiting on Bryce,†he said. “No. I don’t know what his timeline is. He’s his own young man now, like he’s down in Tucson. We’ll see what happens this year, next year, you know, but he has his own timeline. I got my timeline, and I don’t know if they quite match up.â€

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He was asked if his decision would be influenced by a chance to play with Doncic. His answer was LeBron at his jabbing best.

“Ah, nah. As far as how long I go in my career? Nah. Zero,†he said. “The motivation to be able to play alongside him every night, that’s super motivating. That’s what I’m going to train my body for. Every night I go out there and try to be the best player I can for him, and we’re going to bounce that off one another. But as far as me weighing in on him and some other teammates of how far I go in my career, nah.â€

It may be Luka Doncicâ€s team, but itâ€s still LeBron James†world, and heâ€s going to control his narrative down to the last syllables of the last sentences of his final goodbye.

And that donâ€t mean maybe.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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