{"id":130953,"date":"2025-03-26T15:06:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T19:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=130953"},"modified":"2025-03-26T15:27:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T19:27:33","slug":"lakers-lebron-james-how-know-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/26\/lakers-lebron-james-how-know-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Legend Reveals How He\u2019ll \u2018Know\u2019 When To Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers legend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> is often in front of a microphone.<\/p>\n<p>Media pressers. Podcast episodes. Award shows. However, on Wednesday, the future Hall of Famer made a rare in-person appearance on a nationally syndicated sports show. In his rich and revealing interview with punter-turned-media personality Pat McAfee, James discussed everything from his 2007 NBA Finals run with the Cleveland Cavaliers to Miami Heat president taking his chocolate chip cookies.<\/p>\n<p>He also opened up about the elephant in the room: his impending retirement.<\/p>\n<h2>Lakers\u2019 LeBron James Reveals How He\u2019ll \u2018Know\u2019 When To Retire<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all about \u2014for real, for me \u2014it\u2019s my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cObviously I know that I\u2019m on the other side of the hill..<\/p>\n<p>For me it\u2019s all about my mind and I\u2019m all about the process..<\/p>\n<p>I will be able to tell when it\u2019s a wrap\u201d ~ <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KingJames?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@KingJames<\/a><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PMSLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#PMSLive<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VaXq0ZrCQ3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/VaXq0ZrCQ3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PatMcAfeeShow\/status\/1904942781950234961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am all about the process\u2026 If it gets to the point where I don\u2019t feel like showing up to the arena five hours in advance, or I don\u2019t feel like training, or I don\u2019t feel like studying the scout sheet\u2026 If it gets to that point, I\u2019ll know \u2014like you know what Bron \u2014it\u2019s a wrap,\u201d the 40-year-old says.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, what\u2019s been evident throughout this season is that from a physical standpoint, James has managed to compensate for declining explosiveness in various ways.<\/p>\n<h3>The Punisher<\/h3>\n<p>The most simple enhancement may be that he\u2019s become a bruiser. He\u2019s always been a terror coming down the lane, in the halfcourt or fullcourt. However, while he\u2019s still able to get up, he\u2019s more likely to shoulder through his defender than jump over them.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, James has only 59 dunks this season, not far off of his career-low (74). In addition, he\u2019s had fewer than 90 dunks in each season he\u2019s played with the Lakers. In the 15 previous seasons, he only finished with fewer than 90 dunks once.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, he\u2019s been more efficient inside these last seven season. With Los Angeles, he\u2019s converted 76.9 percent of his shots 0-3 feet away from the rim. Prior to signing with the Lakers, he was shooting 73.3 percent when 0-3 feet away from the basket.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024-25, James is scoring 0.96 points per possession on isolation attempts (70th percentile) and 1.02 points per possession on post-ups (59th percentile). He\u2019s also shooting 53.8 percent from the field on drives; not far off of Milwaukee Bucks forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>\u2019s mark (55.3 percent).<\/p>\n<h3>The Archer<\/h3>\n<p>James has also become a formidable presence outside the 3-point line, extending his range and reliability.<\/p>\n<p>As a rookie, he was 19-93 (20.4 percent) when shooting 25 feet and behind. His first year with the Heat, he went 41-150 (27.3 percent). The season that he returned to the Cavaliers, he was 70-225 (31.1 percent) from shooting 25+ feet away. Then, in his first season with the Lakers, he went 89-262 (34.0 percent) from that same distance.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024-25, he\u2019s made 111 of the 295 attempts (37.6 percent) he\u2019s taken from 25+ feet away.<\/p>\n<h3>The General<\/h3>\n<p>James\u2019s mind is still his most defining trait. That\u2019s not just in terms of basketball IQ, though he\u2019s long been regarded as a hoops genius. It\u2019s also his mentality. Though he was born with traits that lent themselves to him becoming a successful player, his regimented approach has helped set him apart as well.<\/p>\n<p>He may never lose the passion for playing or being around the game. He lives and breathes the sport and why not, as it\u2019s helped his life tremendously. Nonetheless, if he isn\u2019t fully engaged, it\u2019ll be be an even clearer sign of his decline than his flyer miles.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, that isn\u2019t an issue. There\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/14\/lebron-james-retirement-los-angeles-lakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">no telling when it will be<\/a> though.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers legend LeBron James is often in front of a microphone. Media pressers. Podcast episodes. Award shows. However, on Wednesday, the future Hall of Famer made a rare in-person appearance on a nationally syndicated sports show. In his rich and revealing interview with punter-turned-media personality Pat McAfee, James discussed everything from his 2007 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":130967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,62,3],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-130953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130953"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130975,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130953\/revisions\/130975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}