We will retire his jersey – Lakers Jeanie Buss on LeBron James

 

Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss has confirmed that they will retire LeBron James’ jersey once he calls time in his glorious career. Recently, James confirmed that the upcoming season will be the 21st of his career and he will continue playing while receiving an award at the ESPYS ceremony after leapfrogging Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s tally of most points in the NBA.

In 2022, when Bill Russell died aged 88, Boston Celtics decided to retire his jersey and such a gesture was made for the first time in the NBA. James also recently confirmed, as reported by ESPN, that he will change his jersey number to 23 from 6 to honor the legendary Bill Russell.

Meanwhile, James has always played a key role in the success of the Lakers. The veteran had played an instrumental role in taking the Lakers to glory in the 2020 season.

“The standard for having your jersey retired as a Laker is when a player is inducted into the Hall-of-Fame. I have absolutely no doubt that LeBron will make it into the Basketball Hall-of-Fame,” Buss told Sportskeeda.

“When he does so, then we will retire his jersey. Knowing that he will make it into the Basketball Hall-of-Fame, he will have his Lakers jersey retired, no doubt about it.”

Speaking on James’ decision to continue playing in the upcoming season, Buss said, “It was about giving him his space and letting him make his decision. But with the way he played last season, there was to me no reason for him to retire.”

The Lakers had made it to the Western Conference finals but their journey was ended by eventual champions Denver Nuggets, who went to clean sweep them.

Meanwhile, LeBron James averaged 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 55 games in 2022-23. He was selected to play in his nineteenth All-Star games.