LeBron James announces he will play another NBA season for Los Angeles Lakers
- The veteran superstar reveals his plans at the ESPY awards in Hollywood as he receives a gong for becoming the NBA’s career leading scorer
- ‘The day I can’t give the game everything on the floor is the day I’ll be done. Lucky for you guys that day is not today,’ James says
LeBron James will play another season for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 38-year-old superstar announced his intentions on stage at the ESPYs (the United States’ Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly awards) in LA on Wednesday night, after accepting the record-breaking performance award for becoming the NBA’s career scoring leader.
At the end of last season, in which he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark, James had said he was not sure if he would be back.
“In that moment I’m asking myself if I can still play without cheating the game,” James said. “Can I give everything to the game still? The truth is I’ve been asking myself this question at the end of the season for a couple years now. I just never openly talked about it.
“I don’t care how many more points I score or what I can and cannot do on the floor. The real question for me is can I play without cheating this game?
“The day I can’t give the game everything on the floor is the day I’ll be done. Lucky for you guys that day is not today.”
The crowd at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood let out a huge cheer.
“So yeah, I still got something left,” James said. “A lot left.”
The US women’s football team were honoured with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for their fight to receive equal pay. The players sued US Soccer in 2019 and last year reached agreement on a deal that splits men’s and women’s pay equally.
Patrick Mahomes was honoured as best men’s sports athlete. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has won two Super Bowls in his five seasons and was named MVP of the game each time, including this past February.
Skier Mikaela Shiffrin received the women’s sports honour. Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race in March, breaking the mark set by Ingemar Stenmark for the most such wins by any skier. She went on to win an 88th Cup race, as well as the overall season title.
“This season was absolutely incredible and there was a lot of talk about records and it got me thinking, why is a record actually important?” Shiffrin said.
“I just feel like it’s not important to break records or re-set records. It’s important to set the tone for the next generation, to inspire them.”
