LeBron James confirms the obvious about retirement in fiery ESPYs speech

LeBron James was honored at the 2023 ESPYs on Wednesday night but addressed the lingering retirement rumors during his fiery speech. 

In the no-brainer of all no-brainer decisions for the 2023 ESPYs, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James was given the honor of “Best Record-Breaking Performance” for the year.

That, of course, was in reference to LeBron becoming the NBA‘s all-time career leading scorer this past season, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s longstanding record — and then building upon his new lead.

But after the Lakers’ exit in the Western Conference Finals with a loss to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets, James left his future in the league up in the air, teasing that he was considering retirement after 20 NBA seasons.

As LeBron accepted his award at the ESPYs on Wednesday night, though, he cleared up any speculation in a fiery speech, saying that when he couldn’t give the game of basketball everything anymore, he’d walk away — but adding that day was not today.

LeBron James confirms he’s not retiring, will return to Lakers in ESPYs speech

Even in year 20, LeBron proved that he’s still one of the league’s elite at 38 years old. For the regular season, he averaged 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game while shooting with 50.0/32.1/76.8 percent splits.

He continued as a force in the postseason too, carrying the Lakers out of the Play-In Tournament all the way through to the Western Conference Finals. Over the 16 official postseason games, he put up 24.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.1 blocks and 1.1 steals per contest.

Of course, in recent years, James has taken even more care of his body with load management. But with rumors still persisting that he wants to play in the league with his son, Bronny, who just enrolled with the USC Trojans, that dream remains alive as LeBron isn’t going anywhere.