{"id":71356,"date":"2024-03-31T22:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T02:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71356"},"modified":"2024-03-31T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T02:24:02","slug":"lebron-james-breaks-michael-jordan-tie-addresses-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/31\/lebron-james-breaks-michael-jordan-tie-addresses-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Breaks Michael Jordan Tie, Addresses Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers superstar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> just had one of the best offensive games of his career on Easter Sunday, recording 40 points and five assists against the Brooklyn Nets while knocking down nine triples.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LeBron put up one of his best performances of the season to lead the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Lakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Lakers<\/a> past the Nets!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc51 40 PTS (ties season high)<br \/>\n\ud83d\udc51 13\/17 FGM<br \/>\n\ud83d\udc51 9 3PM (ties career high) on 9\/10 shooting <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GAMvY2Qqmp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/GAMvY2Qqmp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1774598734757691398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The king of the court shot 13-17 from the field and 9-10 from 3 on his way to a true shooting percentage of 101.8, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StatsWilliams\/status\/1774595416509518184?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the highest in his 21-year career<\/a>, per ESPN research producer Matt Williams. James became the second player in franchise history to make at least nine 3-pointers in a game, joining Lakers icon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanko01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kobe Bryant<\/a>, who completed the feat four times. With his performance, James also broke a tie with Hall of Fame wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jordami01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Jordan<\/a> for the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/georgemikan\/status\/1774587377576509613?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">most games scoring at least 30 points<\/a>. To help frame that accomplishment, consider that Hall of Fame center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chambwi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wilt Chamberlain<\/a> ranks third all-time in career 30+ point games and has 115 fewer such games than James.<\/p>\n<h2>LeBron James Breaks Michael Jordan Tie, Addresses Retirement<\/h2>\n<p>Following the Lakers\u2019 victory over the Nets, the 39-year-old addressed his playing future after being asked how long he has left in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot very long,\u201d James says. \u201cI\u2019m on the other side \u2014obviously \u2014of the heel. I\u2019m not going to play another 21 years. That\u2019s for damn sure. Not very long. I don\u2019t know when that door will close as far as when I retire, but I don\u2019t have much time left.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LeBron James on how much longer he\u2019ll play in the NBA: \u201cNot very long. I\u2019m on the other side of the heel. I\u2019m not going to play another 21 years. That\u2019s for damn sure. Not very long. I don\u2019t know when that door will close as far as when I retire, but I don\u2019t have much time left.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4FYeriGaDP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4FYeriGaDP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeAScotto\/status\/1774602645824573455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>During the 2023-24 NBA All-Star Break, James offered similar sentiments about <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/19\/lebron-james-battle-father-time-eye-opening-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his future outlook<\/a>. At the time, the ailing James would say:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to end, but it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>James reportedly deliberated retirement last offseason, announcing during the ESPY Awards that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YonmfL9GvOw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he would return<\/a> for the 2023-24 season. That said, it seems as if the four-time MVP has been seriously considering when he&#8217;s going to hang up his jersey. Indeed, he&#8217;s already thinking about if he&#8217;s going to have a retirement tour.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, no matter what James decides, his greatness <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/24\/lebron-james-approaching-milestone\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">will echo through generations<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James just had one of the best offensive games of his career on Easter Sunday, recording 40 points and five assists against the Brooklyn Nets while knocking down nine triples. LeBron put up one of his best performances of the season to lead the @Lakers past the Nets! \ud83d\udc51 40 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[26,1608,8,62,3],"tags":[38,607],"class_list":["post-71356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-bulls","category-nba","category-news","tag-lebron-james","tag-michael-jordan"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71356","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=71356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}