LeBron James exercises his player option, sets NBA record

Lakers superstar LeBron James will once again make NBA history by playing in his 23rd NBA season.

James exercised his player option for $52.6 million to play for the Lakers during the 2025-26 season, his agent and CEO of Klutch Sports Rich Paul told The Times on Sunday morning.

James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, had been tied with Vince Carter for the most seasons played in the NBA at 22. This will be James’ eighth season with the Lakers.

James, 40, is 50 games away from breaking Hall of Famer Robert Parish’s record for the most games played in the regular season.

James averaged 24.4 points per game last season, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds.

Fellow Laker Dorian Finney-Smith reportedly declined his $15.3-million player option and will pursue free agency. Finney-Smith, who is coming off a strong season with the Lakers, is expected to be pursued by multiple teams. He could still return to the Lakers. ESPN was first to report Finney-Smith’s decision.

Last week, Austin Reaves declined the team’s maximum offer of four years for $89 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Reaves, 27, still has two years left on his deal, for $13.9 million next season and $14.9 million in the 2026-27 season, and he holds a player option for the last year of his deal.

He was third on the Lakers in scoring last season, averaging career-highs in scoring (20.2), assists (5.8), rebounds (4.5) and minutes per game (34.9). He shot 46% from the field and 37.7% from three-point range.

With the James and Smith player option questions resolved Sunday, the Lakers are focused on filling out their roster. They added an athletic wing player when they acquired Adou Thiero in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who drafted him with the 36th pick in the second round.

The most pressing need for the Lakers remains a center, and they’ll have to look into free agency or via trade to acquire one.

The Lakers have the taxpayer mid-level exception of about $5.65 million to spend.

“As I said at the end of the year, we know one of the things we have to address is the center position and that’s clearly going to be one of our focuses as we begin the free-agency period,” Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, told Spectrum SportsNet after the second round of the draft Thursday. “… “So, we’re looking forward to just putting in the hard work and making sure we take care of all the needs on the roster to give [Lakers coach] JJ [Redick] the tools he needs for this team to be great next season.”