At this point, it feels fairly certain that LeBron James won’t actually be retiring this offseason, no matter how shocking and surprising his comments were in the moment. The debates about what he actually meant by those comments can rage on, whether they were a leverage play or a diversionary tactic.
But retirement is on the cards in some capacity, and one of the discussions surrounding it was the financial implications for both LeBron and the Lakers. If he does retire, how does that impact the Lakers and could LeBron sit out a season and come back next year?