Lakers News: NBA World Reacts To LeBron James' Potential Retirement

Yesterday, despite a 40-point, 10-rebound, nine-assist night courtesy of All-NBA small forward LeBron James, your Los Angeles Lakers fell, 113-111, in the waning seconds of a must-win Game 4 to the Denver Nuggets. With the loss, the Lakers also were eliminated from playoff contention in a four-game Western Conference Finals sweep.

But the LA news cycle didn't end there. Far from it.

Instead, the 38-year-old James practically broke the Internet by revealing that he was considering calling it a career following the end of his 20th NBA season.

Comedian C.J. Toledano joked about the fact that the James news had instantly dwarfed what probably should be the main story, the dominance of Denver and, on the other side of the bracket, the Miami Heat:

BREAKING: Heat-Nuggets Finals to be played in corner of LeBron’s retirement special, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/a1v27iuN0A
— C.J. Toledano 💩 (@CJToledano) May 23, 2023

Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer posited that James was floating the possibility of a retirement to intimidate the Lakers front office into trading for another past-his-prime star point guard who doesn't play defense (because we all remember how well that worked last time):

I'd bet on LeBron's comments in part being a negotiation tactic: I'll retire unless you go all-in next season. And the player James probably wants the Lakers to acquire is Kyrie Irving. https://t.co/AaLKDRFfnd
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) May 23, 2023

Complex Sports went for a throwback reference:

Lakers fans seeing reports of LeBron contemplating retirement pic.twitter.com/oCHN23gqhb
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) May 23, 2023

Portland Trail Blazers beat reporter Sean Highkin, stationed in the hometown of LeBron's most important corporate partner, relayed his own skepticism:

You really think LeBron will abruptly retire without a year-long campaign? Nike wouldn't allow it.
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) May 23, 2023

Rob Perez mapped out a positively MJ-esque retirement-and-comeback scheme for LBJ:

1) retire for a year
2) watch Bronny at USC
3) recharge the body
4) come back in 2024
5) sign with whatever team drafts Bronny

not a bad strategy at all, to be honest. and he wouldnt end his career getting swept. LeBron is not going to end his career getting swept, right? right? https://t.co/zJ2L7NSD5T
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 23, 2023

Sportsnet 590 The FAN's Alex Wong joked about an imagined hypothetical conversation between Disney/ESPN CEO Bob Iger and Adam Silver, seen chatting at the game:

“lmaooo 10 days off? no don’t worry we’ll just drop a ‘will lebron retire’ thing that’ll take up a couple days and we got kyrie running around too” pic.twitter.com/p7cRvoKRJW
— alex (@steven_lebron) May 23, 2023

"Primo" showrunner Shea Serrano, also the writer of the New York Times bestseller "Basketball (And Other Things)" and a lifelong San Antonio Spurs fan, noted his trepidations about a post-LeBron NBA:

i am not emotionally ready for a league without lebron yet https://t.co/qRNQTamvq3
— Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) May 23, 2023

Molly Morrison of Bleacher Report pled for James to stick around at least a while longer:

noo lebron don’t retire you’ve singlehandedly changed the way i’ve consumed and enjoyed basketball throughout my life aha
— Molly Morrison (@mollyhannahm) May 23, 2023

Sportswear designer Golden Knight also joked about how LeBron James pettily reshaped the NBA news cycle:

LeBron when he hinted at retirement so nobody would talk about the Nuggets tomorrow:

pic.twitter.com/QNCAPReSOk
— GoldenKnight (@GoldenKnightGFX) May 23, 2023

Retirement feels like somewhat of a drastic step for a guy who just wrapped up his season leading his team to the Western Conference Finals. Perhaps he should listen to our advice from earlier this season and consider load management first.

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