Despite missing 14 games to start this season and some rust after returning, the 41-year-old is still playing at an All-Star level and can clearly still provide to winning basketball.

Despite that, general manager Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office have shown signs of a willingness to let James go, whether that be signing elsewhere or hanging it up.

With that uncertainty looming over Los Angeles, teams are taking notice and preparing to possibly make a run at the four-time champion. Obviously, the Cleveland Cavaliers are at the top of that list with Donovan Mitchell and newly acquired James Harden rumored to be preparing a recruitment for the Ohio native, Kendrick Perkins reported on the Road Trippin’ Show:

“My sources told me that Donovan Mitchell and James Harden already are starting the push to go and recruit LeBron James this offseason. I’m just telling you, my sources told me as soon as James Harden got on the phone or got around the team, the initial was we’re about to make this run, go all out, but we want LeBron James.”

Seeing how the trade deadline panned out for the Cavaliers, they shortened their championship window by acquiring an older player in Harden in exchange for Darius Garland. However, they improved their chances of winning in the present and clearly want to bring a second title to Cleveland.

Objectively speaking, it makes sense as to why James would return back to Cleveland for a third and final stint. Closing out a historic career where it all started is a storybook ending and that could be weighing on his mind as well.

Signs are pointing to the Cavaliaers making a considerable push for James and a departure for L.A. looks to be on the table, although a lot can change between now and the summer.

LeBron James & organization ready to part ways this summer

James is in his eighth season with the Lakers and the end appears to be near.According to recent reports, L.A. is ready to move on to shift their focus on building around Luka Doncic and James shares a mutual feeling of parting ways this offseason.

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Harden has proven himself to be one of the greatest scorers of this generation with his outstanding 3-point shooting and his ability to get to the rim almost at will due to his excellent ball-handling. Harden finished with 32 points in the Clippers’ victory over the Charlotte Hornets and with that, moved ahead of Shaq into ninth on the all-time scoring list.

Afterwards, Harden spoke highly of the Lakers legend, noting that he grew up watching Shaq as a Southern California native and calling it a an honor to surpass him, via NBA on X:

“Shaquille O’Neal somebody that I literally grew up watching, being from LA. Him and Kobe doin their thing, winning multiple championships. The most dominant big man in the history of the game. It’s a true honor, it’s a testament to the work that I’ve put in and it’s all glory to God.”

Harden was born in Los Angeles and attended Artesia High School in Lakewood, so he was able to witness the greatness and dominance of O’Neal right in his backyard. As he said, Shaq was the most dominant big man most have ever seen, and was unguardable, especially in his prime on those early-2000s Lakers teams alongside Kobe Bryant.

Should Harden continue to produce at this level for a couple more seasons, he can still move higher on this list and potentially pass another Lakers legend in Wilt Chamberlain, as well as Dirk Nowitzki, though current Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant is also ahead of Harden and still scoring at a clip that will make it tough for Harden to catch him.

Harden has enjoyed a truly special career and is still one of the best players in the league at 36 years old. Any time you are in the realm of an all-time great like Shaq, it is a truly special accomplishment.

Lakers’ LeBron James humbled by 23rd NBA season jersey patch

It is still James at the top of that all-time scoring list and he continues to create separation by still being great in his 23rd NBA season. In fact, LeBron is the only player ever to even play 23 years in the league and in honor of that, a special 23rd NBA season jersey patch was created by Topps, which he admitted was humbling to see.

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As of Dec. 22, 2025, LeBron sits at 42,406 points, 4,019 points ahead of the next-highest total. That difference alone is two full seasons of averaging 25 points per game. And that was what L.A. Clippers star James Harden focused on after his recent win over the Lakers.

Harden recently passed Carmelo Anthony to become the NBA’s 10th leading scorer all-time. But he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of catching up to or passing LeBron, via Tomer Azarly of Clutch Points:

“Don’t even say LeBron in this conversation,” Harden joked. “LeBron is… Nobody’s — when we talk about that record — nobody’s ever catching that. But just to be back out there, I’m not, I only missed one game, but just to be back out there and giving my teammates an opportunity to help them win the game was important for me. So it wasn’t pretty, but we got to win, so we just got to build momentum off this.”

Harden is currently 10th all-time with 28,359 points. He has been in the NBA for 17 years and was, at one time, one of the league’s most prolific scorers. He averaged over 30 points per game in three consecutive seasons and averaged over 29 points per game in five. Over the course of nine seasons from 2012-21, he averaged 29.3 points per game.

And yet, he is still over 14,000 points away from James. He’s in his 17th season at age 36, and would need to average his current 25.8 points per game — his most in a season since 2019-20 — for another 544 games to catch LeBron’s current total. That’s over 6.5 seasons if he played 82 games every year.

And that’s not even factoring in that James is going to score more points before calling it a career. If Harden, a player with one of the greatest scoring resumes in league history, sits that far away from LeBron, it’s going to be very hard for anyone to pass him up.

Even take James’ teammate in Luka Doncic. He has a 28.9 points per game career average in his eighth season, and has scored 13,594 points. He would need to maintain that average for 82 games per year for over 12 seasons to catch LeBron.

Catching James may simply never happen. But that’s what many thought about Abdul-Jabbar as well.

LeBron James discusses significance of playing Christmas Day

James is set to play his 20th game on Christmas Day in 23 seasons. So he knows more than anyone what it means to be chosen to play on one of the league’s biggest regular season days and he spoke about that as the Lakers prepare to play the Houston Rockets.

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After numerous role players opted into their player options, the Lakers currently do not have any cap space or roster spots.

LeBron James could help aid them in that, however, as he is willing to take a pay cut if it means the Lakers can add an impact player. If he follows through with that, the Lakers will be able to use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception of around $12.9 million per year.

James isn’t willing to do that for just anyone though and Dave McMenamin of ESPN is reporting that James Harden, Klay Thompson and Jonas Valanciunas are players he would do it for:

The type of player that James would be willing to make a financial sacrifice for would be an established veteran playmaker like James Harden or Klay Thompson, or an established big man to play alongside Anthony Davis — like Jonas Valančiūnas, sources told ESPN.

The Clippers seem intent on re-signing James Harden, especially with the strong possibility of Paul George leaving, so him coming to the Lakers for the mid-level exception likely isn’t happening.

L.A. is believed to want to address the center position and Valanciunas could be an answer there, although he wouldn’t be the splashy move that James seems to be looking for.

Mutual interest between Lakers and Klay Thompson?

That leaves Thompson as the most likely option here, and there appears to be mutual interest. Heading into free agency, the possibility of Thompson leaving the Golden State Warriors, the only franchise he has ever known, is more real than ever.

Thompson will likely have a number of suitors in free agency with the Clippers and Dallas Mavericks being among them. The chance to return home and play for the team he grew up rooting for has to be appealing to Thompson though, especially with his dad Mychal still calling games for the Lakers franchise.

Regardless, James won’t be taking a pay cut for just anyone so it will be up to Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office to find someone that is good enough to convince the 39-year-old to do so.

If they are unable to then the Lakers will likely head into the 2024-25 season without making any real roster upgrades, hoping improvement would come internally through their coaching change.

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Harden grew up in Los Angeles and was a star at Artesia High School and Arizona State while Kobe was staking his spot as the measuring stick in the league. And watching Kobe win championships with the Lakers, and put on absolutely unbelievable performances helped push Harden to fulfill his dreams as well.

The L.A. Clippers guard recently spoke on this in an interview with Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype, saying that there was just one person who made him fall in love with the game of basketball and that was Bryant:

“I mean, there was only one person who made me love, I mean fall in love with the game, and that’s Kobe Bryant. Being from LA and being a Lakers fan watching him grow up and win several championships and his passion and love and what he did for the game of basketball, I think the world, you know, feels the same way, but that’s why I started playing basketball. The skill set and things that I’ve learned, I kind of picked up on my own, but as far as falling in love with the game, it’s definitely been Kobe.”

Harden would continue on, adding that Kobe did so much for the area in general and that the Lakers legend simply affected him differently:

“Yeah, I just grew up watching him and what he did for the city of LA basketball in general. You know, I mean it’s just for me; it’s hit home, and yeah, definitely Kobe.”

It’s impossible to overstate the impact Bryant had on the area and so many young players who would grow up to be NBA stars. Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan, and many others grew up watching him dominate with the Lakers just like Harden did.

Kobe was truly a generational talent and one of the greatest to ever play the game and his legacy lives on through Harden and many others who were inspired by everything he did.

Kyrie Irving misses Lakers legend Kobe Bryant ‘every single day’

While many grew up watching Kobe Bryant, the one player who was arguably closest to him was Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving. He was a true mentor to Irving both on and off the court and the Mavericks star still thinks about him daily.

Irving said that he misses Kobe ‘every single day’ and opening up about the things that the Lakers legend pushed him to do. Irving added that Bryant knew what his powers were and that his lessons transcended the game of basketball.

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