LeBron James may be coming back for a record-setting 24 season in the association, but just a few short months ago, he was strongly considering calling it quits. By his own admission, his semifinals loss to the OKC Thunder was what triggered this internal debate.
During a recent episode of the Mind the Game podcast, James revealed that once his Lakers were bounced from the 2026 postseason by the Thunder, questions of "Is this the end?" started to seriously bounce around in his head.
Following his playoff exit, the 22-time All-Star noted that he even took roughly two months off from the sport as a whole.
In the end, of course, he decided that his body and spirit were still in the right state to extend his career for at least another year, as he inked a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.
Considering he was last seen dropping a ridiculous 23.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 1.3 steals on 50.0 percent shooting from the floor and 36.4 percent shooting from deep against the top-ranked Thunder during their four-game second-round bout, it's easy to see why LeBron feels he's still capable of playing at the highest level the sport has to offer.
Of course, as he acknowledged, considering how things turned out against OKC, making his decision to return for 2026-27 wasn't an easy one to make.
LeBron James praises Thunder defensive tactics
Over the past few years, the Thunder has consistently proven itself to be the top defensive unit in the association, and LeBron experienced firsthand during last year's postseason the reasons why.
"They make you uncomfortable," James said. "They speed you up. They want you to play faster because they know that it's not to your [liking] that you want to play at. You want to play a little bit more methodical, you want to play a little bit more smooth. No, [the Thunder are] going to speed you up, force you into this paint, we're going to reach from behind, and either make you take contested shots or we want you to go to the rim."
Last season, the Thunder finished with a league-best 106.5 defensive rating, tied for second in steals per game (9.7), and held their opponents to the worst field goal percentage at 43.7 percent while leading the charge in contested shots and deflections along the way.
When playing OKC in the semifinals, LeBron's Lakers were held to the second-lowest points per game average (103.8) and the most turnovers (18.8), and saw their pace of play drop from 99.22 during the regular season to just 95.25 along the way.
It's certainly impressive that James was able to produce at the level he did during their 4-0 sweep, though, all things considered, it's no wonder the Thunder dominated Los Angeles the way they did.
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