{"id":35556,"date":"2020-12-02T22:12:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T03:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=35556"},"modified":"2020-12-02T22:12:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T03:12:32","slug":"los-angeles-lakers-and-lebron-james-agree-to-two-year-85-million-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2020\/12\/02\/los-angeles-lakers-and-lebron-james-agree-to-two-year-85-million-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James Agree to Two-Year, $85 Million Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2020 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player will be in the City of Angels for a little while longer. Klutch Sports agent Rich Paul told <em>ESPN<\/em> and multiple outlets that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has agreed to a two-year, $85 million extension with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/lakers\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James Agree to Two-Year, $85 Million Extension<\/h2>\n<p>According to <em>The Athletic&#8217;s<\/em> Shams Charania, James&#8217; extension will keep the future Hall of Famer in Los Angeles through the 2022-23 season. He signed a four-year deal in July 2018 and missed the postseason during his first year in Los Angeles. However, he bounced back the following year by keeping his promise in bringing a championship back to Los Angeles. His deal had a player option after the 2020-21 season, until this recent contract extension.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LeBron James\u2018 two-year, $85M max extension with the Los Angeles Lakers runs through 2022-23 season, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul tells <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthleticNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthleticNBA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stadium<\/a>. James\u2018 36th birthday is on Dec. 30. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MAF7WjxSWs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/MAF7WjxSWs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1334194971801432065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 2, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>James will turn 36-years-old this month. However, he has shown zero signs of slowing down. During the Lakers&#8217; championship season, James averaged 25.3 points per game and led the league in assists with 10.2 per game. His dominance carried over to the postseason, finishing with nine 30-point games and five triple-doubles to help the Lakers win their 17th championship. He was named NBA Finals MVP after leading the Lakers past the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/heat\/\" target=\"_self\">Miami Heat<\/a> in six games. James is the first player in NBA history to win the award with three different franchises. He previously won with Heat in 2012 and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/cavaliers\/\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an interesting note. His oldest son, <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/bronny-james-46058619\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Bronny James<\/strong><\/a>, will graduate from high school in 2023, the year after James&#8217; deal expires. If the league and players&#8217; association mutually agree to change the high-school-to-pro rule, his son could enter the NBA Draft. The father-and-son duo could potentially play with or against each other.<\/p>\n<h2>James&#8217; Extention Impact<\/h2>\n<p>With James signing a supermax extension, this draws more attention to\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>who is currently negotiating an extension. The Lakers have room in their cap to offer Davis the supermax, especially with James&#8217; signing his extension. However, if Davis signs a short-term deal, it would give the Lakers additional flexibility to sign a third player at the maximum.<\/p>\n<p>It would be easier for the Lakers if Davis signs the one-and-one to gain his bird rights. If a team has a player&#8217;s bird rights, they can offer more money to re-sign a player without hitting the hard cap. This was how <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/caldwke01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> <\/strong>resigned with Los Angeles, which gave the Lakers the ability to sign\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gasolma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marc Gasol<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>General Manager Rob Pelinka has demonstrated his knowledge and awareness of the salary cap, allowing him to be more flexible when speaking to free agents. The Lakers&#8217; journey for an 18th title is slated to start on Dec. 22nd against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/clippers\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"EyLy4XtQTtlDZQMF0IekAg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1205891917\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'EyLy4XtQTtlDZQMF0IekAg',sig:'EwMudrY3Lc8mGpUZic7Je5SZR7FUerDNEso64IxuTEc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1205891917',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2020 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player will be in the City of Angels for a little while longer. Klutch Sports agent Rich Paul told ESPN and multiple outlets that LeBron James\u00a0has agreed to a two-year, $85 million extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James Agree to Two-Year, $85 Million Extension [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3525,"featured_media":35557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[62,1608,26],"tags":[38,152,96],"class_list":["post-35556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba"],"modified_by":"Adam Taylor McKillop, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35556","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\/3525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}