LeBron James recently signed a $104 million expansion with the Los Angeles Lakers. Even better for him personally, the Lakers also drafted his son, Bronny James, in the second round.
But LeBron is almost as much known for his vision off the court as he’s known for on it. He has successfully gone from The Chosen One to arguably the greatest player.
According to ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst, who has followed James’ career since his high school days in Akron, LeBron’s potential retirement perfectly aligns with the NBA’s plans to expand to Las Vegas. James has been very clear over his career that he one day wanted to own a team
What is the next thing that he wants? What has he made clear that is after playing with his son? He wants to be the owner of the coming expansion team in Las Vegas,” Windhorst said on ESPN First Take.
“So the biggest thing other than health that we’re going to see that is going to determine when the end of LeBron’s career is is when the owners of the league set forth a timeline about when they’re going to establish that expansion team in Las Vegas,” he said.
“Now nothing is assured, and they keep putting that asterisk on everything, but I suspect once the TV rights deals get wrapped up, which should be this summer sometime, and they have that done, they have the CBA done, the TV deal done, they’ve extended Adam Silver’s contract… they’re going to bring expansion to the table, and they’re going to probably pick a year in which that’s going to be,” Windhorst said.
“It won’t be next season, so it’ll probably, at the earliest, be two years from now,” he added. “And that’s what I think LeBron will be focused on. He wants to join up with partners to become the face of the franchise in Las Vegas.”
