LeBron James has agreed to a two-year, $104 million contract to return to Los Angeles Lakers, CBS Sports NBA insider Bill Reiter confirmed. The deal will pay James his maximum salary for the 2024-25 season, but include a player option for the 2025-26 season, giving James flexibility about his future plans. The deal also includes a no-trade clause, a contractual perk that James has only ever had once in his career. James is reportedly still talking with the Lakers about potentially leaving $1 million or so on the table to help the Lakers stay below the second apron and retain a bit of roster-building flexibility, but those conversations are ongoing for now, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.
The price here is notable because James had previously been open to taking a significant pay cut in order to give the Lakers the financial flexibility needed to make a meaningful upgrade, either through the non-taxpayer mid-level exception or some other means. Reports indicated that he was willing to potentially leave as much as $20 million on the table to help the Lakers improve and have a chance to win at the highest levels again.
However, his willingness to do so was limited to the team's ability to find such impact help. He was reportedly open to doing so to help the Lakers get a player like Klay Thompson, James Harden or Jonas Valanciunas, but the Lakers missed out on Thompson after a pursuit early in free agency as he decided to join the Dallas Mavericks. Harden and Valanciunas were off of the market by that point, and while the Lakers were reportedly interested in DeMar DeRozan, he, to this point, was not willing to sign for the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. James' offer to leave money on the table was based on specific timing. He has to be at Team USA camp on Sunday and wanted a deal done by then. The Lakers couldn't find the help he wanted, so he decides to take the max.
The no-trade clause is a rarity for James, but most of the time, he hasn't been eligible for one. A player needs three things in order to qualify for a no-trade clause: eight total years of NBA experience, at least four with his current team, and they must be signing a new contract rather than extending an existing one. James played the first seven years of his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers before spending a four-year increment with the Miami Heat. When he returned to Cleveland in 2014, those seven years still counted, so he was indeed eligible for a no-trade clause and got one then. When he signed with the Lakers in 2018, the four-year clock reset, so he wasn't eligible.
He has been a Laker for six seasons now, but had not signed a new contract at any point in that span, but rather, extending existing ones. The no-trade clause is not strictly necessary for James, as a player of his stature would never be traded without consent. At the trade deadline, the Lakers were approached by the Golden State Warriors about a possible deal, but they consulted with James who confirmed he did not want to be moved at that time. Still, a player like James typically wants all of the bells and whistles on his contract, and now he and Bradley Beal are the only players with explicit no-trade clauses in their contracts.
The structure of the deal is notable as well given its length. James could have signed for up to three years and roughly $162 million. He instead elected to take what is effectively a one-year deal, as his player option for the 2025-26 season means he can re-enter the free agent market next summer if he so chooses. At that point, James will be 40, and he will have already played one season with his son, Bronny James, whom the Lakers selected No. 55 overall in June's NBA Draft. If the Lakers can't find a way back into the championship picture, he now has the freedom to try to do so elsewhere.
James has already played one of the NBA's longest and most successful careers. He is the league's all-time leading scorer and holds a number of other significant records as well. He's not going to play forever, and the short-term nature of this deal is a reminder of that. Reports have indicated that he is only planning to play a few more seasons, but on a one-year deal, the chance always exists that he could retire at the end of the season. James is a Laker for now, but afterward, only question marks remain.
