His Hennessy commercial might have just been genius product marketing, but like or not, LeBron James' retirement will come eventually. But if you're already wondering what a Luka Doncic-led Lakers will look like sans The King, you won't have to wait too long, as ESPN's NBA Insider Shams Charania reported that James will be nursing a flare-up of sciatica from L.A.'s bench until around mid-November.
Despite Doncic's obvious importance as the Lakers' new centerpiece and primary concern going forward, the implications of a player like James missing any significant amount of time are large for an organization that has legitimate championship aspirations for the 2025-26 season. James finished as a top-six MVP vote-getter and All-NBA second-teamer in 2025 at the age of 40, and still shows no signs of approaching a significant cliff. That player is not easy to replace for any amount of time — which begs the question ...
When might LeBron return? (And what is sciatica?)
The Lakers, championship-hungry as they are, seem to be comfortable enough with their roster and early-season schedule to be a little more conservative with James than they probably need to be. Charania's reporting pointed to James initially developing the condition towards the end of summer, meaning he's been sidelined from most basketball activities for about two months, which is about as long as most sciatica cases last.
Sciatica, by the strictest definition, simply refers to pain in the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back all the way down through most of the leg. In most cases, the issue causing sciatica is pressure on the nerve from the lower spine, usually from a herniated disc. Given that James' injury history prior to the 2020s is relatively minor, and issues related to his back are even rarer, his sciatica condition is most likely due to a simple accumulation of wear and tear over what will be a record-setting 23 NBA seasons by the end of 2026. This lends even more credence to the idea that LeBron and the Lakers are simply playing it safe with his condition, and that they have their pick of when what amounts to his load management ends.
As for when that is most likely to be, the smart money has to be on November 14, the Lakers' second game of NBA Cup group play against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Lakers won the inaugural tournament in 2023, and James himself took home the event's MVP award. Knowing his penchant for crafting storylines around his career, a showdown with a seemingly motivated Zion Williamson to basically kick off another run at a major accolade will certainly be circled on James' calendar. And if the NBA Cup didn't basically open up at the beginning of the month, LeBron would have definitely loved to debut his season against the Grizzlies on Oct. 31 instead.
How will Luka and the Lakers perform without LeBron?
And in the meantime, the Lakers are lucky to have a schedule peppered with what should be relatively easy wins to get their system right. Aside from two pretty difficult grudge matches to kick off the season against the Timberwolves, who swept them out of the playoffs last season, L.A. can easily start hot. Dncic is 14-8 against the Golden State Warriors in the regular season, and no matter how great Steph Curry is, he will still be the best player on the court on opening night. And before facing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the reigning champions on Nov. 12, Doncic can, and should, lead the Lakers to a six-game winning streak after going at least 2-2 to open the season.
As for why: Doncic starts this season after famously getting into incredible shape over the off-season (remember when he was dunking over people?). Before that, all Doncic did when he arrived in L.A. was average 28.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.6 steals over 28 regular-season games. And despite the 2025 season largely being considered a disappointment for the Lakers, they did still finish as a top-three seed in the Western Conference with the chemistry between Doncic, LeBron and 20+-point per game scorer Austin Reaves coming under intense scrutiny.
Well, without LeBron, Luka gets a full shot to run the show with a season under his belt and develop chemistry with Reaves on his own terms. And despite failing to live up to his billing as a No. 1 overall draft pick, Deandre Ayton is still a nightly double-double threat, as well as one of the best centers Doncic has ever played with.
On paper, this Lakers roster, even without LeBron, is more talented than the Dallas ones Doncic led to historic offensive seasons in his early career. Mix that with a relatively soft schedule, and it is easy to see L.A. doing quite well, even without James on the court. The only potential spoilers to their early- season hopes are the Timberwolves (don't be surprised if the Lakers split those games, by the way), the Thunder on Nov. 12 and Wemby and the Spurs on Nov. 5. All in all, I can see the Lakers waking up on Nov. 14 extremely happy, looking at LeBron ready to return and a 10-2 record.
And honestly, with how they're looking at this season, anything much less would be pretty disappointing.