LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers was brought to tears during a tribute by the Cleveland Cavaliers during their January 28 game. 

James played two stints with the Cavaliers, one from 2003 to 2010 and another from 2014 to 2018. In 2016, he helped the team win its first championship in franchise history. The Cavaliers’ tribute highlighted his 2007 Eastern Conference Finals performance and the 2016 championship. 

The game itself was much less ceremonious. The Cavaliers defeated the Lakers 129-99. The Cavaliers had a strong game from All-Star starter Donovan Mitchell and Jaylon Tyson. The Lakers were led by Luka Doncic with some help from Gabe Vincent. James was held to just 11 points on 30 percent shooting. 

This game was also the first time James’ mother saw both him and her grandson, Bronny James, play in an NBA game in person. Bronny scored eight points in his eight minutes of play. 

The topic of discussion in the postgame wasn’t the game itself, but rather James’ future. James is currently the oldest player ever to play in the NBA. James is currently still averaging 22 points per game. However, this is the second-lowest mark of his career, only behind his rookie season. 

James has been very noncommittal about his future and possible retirement this season. James is in the second year of a two-year, $101 million contract. He accepted the player’s option for this season during the offseason. He will be a free agent at season’s end. 

“But the drive is how much, like, juice I can squeeze out of this orange,” James said, “I’m in a battle with Father Time, and I’m taking it personal, and I am going to see how many more times I [can] be victorious over him.”

The second NBA All-Star ballot has come through, and there are many talented players attempting to push their way to the All-Star starting lineup.

Luka Dončić of the Los Angeles Lakers is currently leading all players in votes, with over two million. Doncic is one of two players with two million or more votes, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. 

The All-Star voting is slightly different this season. There are no position locks, which means you can vote for whatever collection of players you wish. There are still conference locks, which means you vote for five Eastern Conference players and five Western Conference players.

The current vote leaders are:

West

Luka Dončić – point guard – Lakers

Nikola Jokic – center – Nuggets

Stephen Curry – point guard – Warriors 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – point guard – Thunder

Victor Wembanyama – center – Spurs 

East

Giannis Antetokounmpo – power forward – Bucks

Jalen Brunson – point guard – Knicks

Tyrese Maxey – point guard – Sixers

Cade Cunningham – point guard – Pistons

Donovan Mitchell – shooting guard – Cavaliers 

All the players who are currently leading the voting have made at least one All-Star team in the past. Antetokounmpo, Wembanyama, and Jokic have dealt with injuries this season and may sit out the game. 

All-Star voting will end on January 14. The starters will be announced on January 19 on NBC and Peacock. The reserves will be announced a few days later and selected by the coaches. There will be three All-Star rosters, one world team featuring players born outside the U.S. and two U.S. teams.

It’s unclear if the U.S. teams will be drafted by the coaches or randomly created. All-Star voting does not guarantee much outside of a spot in the game. The NBA has been trying to shake up the game for years to make it interesting.   

Everyone in the NBA stratosphere waits on LeBron James‘ decision on whether he will use his player option with the Los Angeles Lakers and return with the team for a sixth season. The all-time leader in points has the chance to play in his 23rd season in the NBA, which would break the record that he shares with Vince Carter.

Uncertainty remains in this subject due to James suffering an MCL injury during the Lakers’ playoff loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs.

“I think [everybody has] been on pins and needles for a while,” Klutch Sports CEO/founder and James’ longtime agent Rich Paul said on The Rich Eisen Show. “I don’t know about that though. I wish I had the answer. I don’t know. It’s early. I don’t have conversations like that. I go into each year like he’s continuing to play. I never even talk about that.”

James will be turning 41 in December and remains a force on the court. He has been keeping up with the younger generation of NBA superstars. His experience and skill make him a scary opponent for NBA teams.

The decision to shock the NBA world and trade for superstar guard Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks midway through last season might be able to keep James in Los Angeles. The Lakers have many decisions to make in the offseason, and those decisions might make the discussion easier for James to stay or to retire.

“I don’t have to answer to that,” James said when retirement was mentioned. “Something I’ll sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play. I don’t know the answer to that right now, to be honest. So we’ll see.”

James finished his 22nd season, averaging 24.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds per game as the Lakers’ top player. After the loss to the Timberwolves in the first round, James has not offered any details about what he plans to do.

Bronny James, son of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, was drafted to his father’s team with the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and subsequently signed to a four-year contract. And that’s not where the criticism began, but it’s perhaps where it seemed to become open season.

Bronny spent only one-year playing college basketball, half of which he spent recovering from a cardiac arrest caused by a congenital heart defect. In the 25 games he played for the University of Southern California, he averaged just 4.8 points per game. In other words, the question that emerged from his four-year, fully guaranteed deal with the Lakers was a given – why would L.A. hand out a contract like that, if not for his father’s influence?

Much of Bronny’s early tenure, both in the G-League and NBA, has only made these accusations more virulent. Perhaps most notably, following a Jan. 29 Lakers game where Bronny went scoreless, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith went on live television and lambasted him.

“I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: Stop this. We all know that Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad.”

In the midst of such criticism, though, Bronny has quietly but significantly gained consistency and confidence. After putting up six, four and 16 points on 29% shooting in his first three games with the G-League South Bay Lakers, Bronny has posted 30 points twice and 20 points three times in the ten games since. In the NBA, while he’s still averaging about 1.7 points per game, the team sees improvement as well.

So what’s enabling Bronny to average over 20 points per game in the G-League, which he never did in high school or college?

“I just think it’s a confidence thing,” he said.

Lakers head coach J.J. Redick praised Bronny’s growth as a playmaker, adding that he “has been fantastic in practices” lately. That confidence, both internal and external, enabled Redick to play Bronny for 16 minutes against the Denver Nuggets on March 14, where he made a three-pointer and had a steal.

“It’s great that [Redick] had the level of trust to throw him into a big game the other night at Denver, which is a tough place to play, and he got in the game, made a couple defensive plays, made a corner 3, and I think that’s what he prides himself in is the 3-and-D type of archetype,” said general manager Rob Pelinka. “And for him to be doing it in moments in NBA games, that’s great that he’s even grasped that already.

Bronny credits newfound freedom and “getting reps” with his building confidence, but also mentioned media criticism as a source of motivation.

“My first thought about everything is I always try to just let it go through one ear and out the other, put my head down and come to work and be positive every day,” Bronny said. “But sometimes it just, it fuels me a little bit. I see everything that people are saying, and people think, like, I’m a f—ing robot, like I don’t have any feelings or emotions.”

“But I just take that and use it as fuel for me to go out, wake up every day and get to the gym early, get my extra work in, watch my extra film every day, get better every day,” he continued. “That’s what [Pelinka] wants me to do as a young guy, coming in, playing in the G League and learning from far on the bench watching the Lakers play.”

And Bronny has done what the Lakers have asked of him – what it would be reasonable to ask of any young, second-round player at this point in their career. He’s jumped on any chance to improve and learn, and he’s played NBA minutes when the bench has been depleted.

There are no guarantees about Bronny’s future in the NBA, and there’s probably no way he can live up to the media’s warped expectations. What he can do, though, is keep his head down and keep improving. And that’s what he’s done thus far.

A week after being traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Charlotte Hornets, rookie Dalton Knecht played 17 minutes and put up 10 points in Utah – for the Lakers.

The trade, which sent Knecht, Cam Reddish, and a first-round pick to Charlotte for center Mark Williams, was widely seen as tilted in the Hornets’ favor. Two days after it went through, the Lakers pulled out, claiming that Williams had failed his physical.

Williams, 23, has played just 85 games of his first three seasons due to injury. At an even seven feet, though, he promised to fill a front-court need for the Lakers, and in the games he has played this year, he has been effective. Despite the Hornets’ floundering, especially in the past month, Williams has maintained averages of 15.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.

The primary risk of the trade for the Lakers was always Williams’ health. The Lakers have not revealed the specific issues with the physical, but according to ESPN, the decision was based on “multiple issues,” not the back injury Williams has dealt with.

Now, the Hornets are challenging the Lakers’ decision to pull out. But it doesn’t seem likely the challenge will be successful.

“My understanding is that the Lakers are not concerned about it,” said Lakers beat writer Jovan Buha on the podcast NBA Daily.

“And that basically, as long as they can prove why they rescinded the trade and why they feel the way that they feel about his medicals, they have a 99-percent chance of the trade staying rescinded and not being reversed.”

Besides the awkwardness of the situation, though, the primary consequence of the trade is for Williams’ market value. Williams, who hits restricted free agency following this season, will now increasingly be labeled injury-prone and high-risk, which may cost him millions of dollars.

The Hornets play the Lakers on Feb. 19 in Los Angeles.

In the aftermath of the Luka Doncic trade, LeBron James could reportedly consider signing another extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. Once thought to be winding down at age 40, the prospect of teaming with Doncic is said to be reigniting his interest in another championship pursuit. 

James’ current deal includes a player option next season, with many suspecting that he will retire when his current contract expires. But with the Lakers seriously pursuing more championships with Doncic on the roster, some reports now claim that the acquisition has the power to “extend James’ career.”

Jokes have been made for years about James’ longevity, which has allowed him to consistently perform at an elite level for more than two decades. Imagining this run extending much further, however, borders on irrational. Yet, James remains a pivotal part of a Lakers team that is suddenly in the hunt for another championship. 

Currently in fifth place in the Western Conference with a 29-19 record, the Lakers are already in a solid position for a playoff berth. But while Anthony Davis managed to get them into contention, adding Doncic could potentially put them over the top. Partially replacing Davis with young big man Mark Williams helps with size issues the team might have had in the wake of the Mavericks deal.

All of these changes in the middle of the season make Los Angeles a contender now, but they also make the team a contender for the foreseeable future. That’s what will likely make the decision to leave difficult for James. He and Davis were both winding down as a unit. Doncic is just getting started.

If James can run from Father Time for a few more seasons, fighting both body and mind, it suddenly feels like a real possibility for him to add a ring or two to his immense resume. It may be too tempting for the multigenerational superstar to pass up.

The news that broke Saturday night of Luka Doncic‘s trade to the Los Angeles Lakers ignited shockwaves of disbelief, anger and grief among Dallas Mavericks fans – and also for Doncic himself.

The star reportedly bought a $15 million house in Dallas just last week, cementing a stay that nearly everyone believed would be for the long haul. Doncic, who the Mavericks traded for during the 2018 Draft, led them to the NBA Finals just last year, leading the league with 33.9 points per game during the regular season. Since his rookie year, he’s received five All-Star and five All-NBA selections.

Dallas general manager Nico Harrison appears to have spearheaded the move in near-complete secrecy, even forgoing an additional pick from Los Angeles to avoid involving Doncic’s agent.

In the hours following, Mavericks fans kept vigil outside the American Airlines Center, where the team plays. Fans camped out and left tributes under the statue of Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki, engraved with the motto, “Loyalty never fades away.” Some directed anger at Harrison and the ownership. Most milled around, transforming the plaza into a sort of communal grieving affair.

They weren’t the only ones devastated – Doncic reportedly cried when news of the trade broke.

On Sunday, as fans continued to gather, Doncic posted a statement thanking them, the city of Dallas, and the organizations he had worked with there. The statement did not mention the Mavericks organization.

The statement, titled ‘Dear Dallas’:

“Seven years ago, I came here as a teenager to pursue my dream of playing basketball at the highest level. I thought I’d spend my career here and I wanted so badly to bring you a championship. The love and support you all have given me is more than I could have ever dreamed of. For a young kid from Slovenia coming to the U.S. for the first time, you made North Texas feel like home.

In good times and bad, from injuries to the NBA Finals, your support never changed. Thank you not only for sharing my joy in our best moments, but also for lifting me up when I needed it most.

To all the organizations I’ve worked with throughout the Dallas community, thank you for letting me contribute to your important work and join you in bringing light to those who need it. As I start the next part of my basketball journey, I am leaving a city that will always feel like a home away from home.

Dallas is a special place, and Mavs fans are special fans.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

In the wake of the heartbreak, many Mavericks fans have disavowed their allegiance to the team. Doncic captioned the post “#MFFL” – Mavs Fan For Life.

“[The Mavs] could win every game the rest of the season, and win the championship, and it wouldn’t really matter, because all of the emotional value in that journey just got sucked away,” a fan told Fox 4 News.

“It feels like someone close to you died, in a way.”

Former Lakers head coach Darvin Ham spoke out about his time with his old team, arguing that he was treated unfairly for the amount of success he attained. 

Now an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, Ham just earned his second in-season tournament title, having won the inaugural event with the Lakers last year. He believes that that achievement is one of many that went unappreciated by the front office in his two seasons with the team.

“To do as well as I did, I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension with what I did,” Ham said in an interview with Andscape‘s Marc Spears. “I’m not talking about feelings. I’m talking actual facts. They go from not making it to the playoffs to the final four in the NBA, the conference finals. And then you win the in-season tournament, navigate through all the injuries and win both of your play-in games to get to the playoffs.”

In the 2022-23 season, his first as head coach, the Lakers made a surprise run in the NBA Playoffs, knocking off the Grizzlies and Warriors before getting swept by the Denver Nuggets. Denver went on to win the NBA Championship.

“People always talk about us losing to Denver, but they never talk about how we got to Denver,” Ham said. “We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis and we beat Golden State.”

The following year, as Ham said, the Lakers won the In-Season Tournament and qualified for the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament but lost to Denver again in the first round. It was the end of the road for Ham, who guided the team to the playoffs twice but often took criticism for poor decision-making and a struggle with excessive media attention. There were also claims that merely making the postseason should never have been the goal for a Los Angeles team led by future Hall-of-Famers LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

In any case, the Lakers wanted new leadership, and originally considered UConn coach Dan Hurley as Ham’s replacement before landing on retired NBA player and analyst J.J. Redick, who entered the 2024-25 season with no coaching experience. Through his first 26 games, Los Angeles is 10th in the Western Conference with a 14-12 record. The season’s far from over, but to this point, replacing Ham has done almost nothing to improve a talented but fundamentally undisciplined Lakers roster.

LeBron James returned from a two-game absence on Sunday night, helping the Lakers to a 116-110 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies with 18 points on 7-for-17 shooting.

The leave was timed to the end of the NBA cup tournament, which allowed James to miss just two games in nine days. The team attributed his absence to a lingering foot injury that he had re-aggravated against the Miami Heat on Dec. 4, which had only worsened in the following loss at the Atlanta Hawks.

“It’s an everyday thing,” James told reporters, noting that the injury hadn’t been able to fully heal during his absence. “It’s been lingering for the last few years, but I was able to do a lot of great things to reassure not only that, but I got kneed in the quad in the Atlanta game at the end of regulation by [Anthony Davis], that’s now back to 100 percent.”

James, who turns 40 this month, is averaging 22.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 9.1 assists in 24 games this season. He plays around 35 minutes a night for the Lakers. He is second only to Davis in each number besides assists, which he leads the team in.

It’s not surprising, given that James is arguably the best basketball player of all time, that he would still be a pillar of any team headed into his twenty-second season. But as age and lingering injuries attempt to chase him down, younger players need to be pulling more of their weight.

The Lakers are 14-12, tied for ninth in the Western Conference. In James’ two absences, they beat the Trail Blazers by nine, with Davis, Rui Hachimura, and D’Angelo Russell each contributing over 20 points and five rebounds. They also lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a game where only Davis cracked twenty.

“He’s the best on our team with his attention to detail and shifts,” said Lakers coach J.J. Redick, discussing how important James was to each area of the Lakers’ game. “An important part of us having a good team defense is his talk and his effort level on that.”

Redick added that the team was working to play James most effectively, potentially in shorter bursts, to allow him better recovery. “Maybe it’s not sitting out of [the] game,” he explained. “Maybe it’s not necessarily like I told him the night before the game, not necessarily less minutes, but shorter runs so that he’s not getting gassed, and then quicker segments on the bench, and then he’s back in.”

“He’s obviously dealing with some stuff,” said Davis after the Lakers’ win over the Grizzlies. “But I think a week off kind of just let him heal and get back right.”

Los Angeles Lakers coach J.J. Redick was candid in describing the team’s collective shame after a 41-point defeat to the Miami Heat on Wednesday. The Lakers’ offense performed poorly, but they were especially exposed on defense in a low-effort, systematic shutdown.

“There has to be some ownership,” Redick said after the game, a 134-93 Lakers loss. “When a group is not performing well… you can splinter and it’s easy to not want the ownership, particularly when it’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed, we’re all embarrassed. It’s not a game that I thought we had the right fight, the right professionalism.”

In many ways, Redick was as powerless as viewers at home. Los Angeles’ defense was so egregiously bad late in the game that several moments quickly went viral. With 9:20 remaining in the third quarter, Heat guard Duncan Robinson was so wide open under the basket that he paused and decided against taking the layup. Instead, he kicked the ball back out to Bam Adebayo, who swung it to Tyler Herro for a completely uncontested three-pointer. Lakers star Anthony Davis was dumbfounded looking around at his teammates after the play.

Later on in the quarter, the entire Lakers team walked back on defense after a missed jumper, allowing Terry Rozier to get behind them and put the Heat ahead 100-72 on an uncontested layup. It was an unmistakable sign of a team quitting.

The technical side of this blowout loss is largely irrelevant, as the Lakers demonstrated Wednesday night that their issues are basic. This isn’t the first time. The team is not competing as a unit and is consistently prone to collapsing after losing early initiatives. 

LeBron James finished the night with 29 points, but this team is supposed to be more than a stat-padding venture for the aging superstar. Despite having two future Hall-of-Famers on the roster, the Lakers are in ninth place in the Western Conference with a 12-10 record.

Well on the way to a blowout defeat Wednesday night, Los Angeles Lakers head coach J.J. Redick acquiesced to Cleveland Cavaliers fans and put Bronny James in the game late in the fourth quarter. James responded by scoring his first NBA basket on a midrange jumper, earning a roaring ovation on the road in his home city.

The Cavs went on to win 134-110 and are now 5-0 to start the season, but Wednesday’s game will go down in history for James’ feat. The 20-year-old Cleveland native finished his second NBA appearance with two points, two assists and a steal in five minutes. Though he did not react to the crowd’s support in the moment, he admitted afterwards that he was touched.

“It was insane,” Bronny said. “Much more than I anticipated for sure. But it’s all love. It was insane. It was a nice moment. The chants really got me. I was straight-faced, but I felt it and it felt really good, especially coming from here.”

James’ early reputation in the NBA has been closely tied to claims of nepotism, with many arguing that Lakers star LeBron James influenced Los Angeles’ decision to draft him. In limited appearances since the summer, Bronny has struggled to adjust to NBA-caliber play but demonstrated Wednesday night that he has a shot of finding his way. His father, who began his career in Cleveland and won a championship in the city in 2016, commended him for handling the crowd’s expectations.

“He’s better than I would have been in that situation … 20,000 fans screaming my name to get in the game and wanting me to be in the game, and if the role’s reversed, I don’t know if I would have been able to handle it,” LeBron said. “To see him get his first NBA basket in this arena where he grew up not too far away from here, it’s an unbelievable moment.”

The Lakers’ loss to Cleveland was more on LeBron than Bronny, as the 39-year-old star scored 26 points but also committed six turnovers. Anthony Davis scored 22 points and rookie Dalton Knecht impressed with 18 points off the bench, but the team’s role players simply didn’t do enough to back up the two stars.

After traveling to Los Angeles and hearing a sales pitch from the Laker brass, back-to-back national championship head Coach Dan Hurley turned down the 6-year $70 million deal offered by owner Jeanie Buss. The contract would have made him the sixth highest-paid coach in the league without spending a second on an NBA sideline.

The UConn headman decided to stay because of family ties and unfinished business. His wife is from New Jersey, and both parties have lived on the East Coast their entire life. Hurley’s brother and father coached in high school and college basketball but never made the jump to the NBA.

Along with personal connections, Hurley wants to etch his name in the sport’s lore as the Huskies attempt a three-peat, the first since UCLA won seven straight titles from 1967 to 1973. Key pieces to their roster left for the pros, including C Donovan Clingan, but Hurley reloaded in the portal while three of his top six in his rotation last year returned. Fan Duel puts UConn’s odds to win the national title at +1000, the betting favorite.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are left to pick up the pieces as their coaching search drags on for its sixth week since firing Darvin Ham. They are still the only team in the NBA without a sideline general after being publicly turned down.

Many expect Los Angeles to reevaluate JJ Reddick or James Borrego, who they interviewed before the pursuit for Hurley became public. It is unclear whether being the clear second favorite affects how either candidate views the position. The uncertain future of LeBron James hangs over the job as the superstar can opt out of his contract when free agency begins at the beginning of July. The Lakers made the playoffs by winning their first play-in game but lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round.