The LeBron James era is over in Los Angeles, making way for another superstar to lead Lakers

It is apparently the end of another era in Los Angeles , where free-agent superstar LeBron James has informed the Lakers that, while he does plan to continue his 23-year NBA career, he does not plan on returning to their team .

James averaged 25.9 points (on 51/36/73 shooting splits), 7.9 assists and 7.7 rebounds in 34.9 minutes per game over eight seasons for the Lakers, leading them to the 2020 NBA championship. James’ eight seasons in L.A. marked his longest stretch anywhere and fell a few years shy of his combined total of 11 seasons on his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers .

Was James’ tenure on the Lakers a success?

He joined a boatload of prospects — Brandon Ingram , Josh Hart , Alex Caruso , Ivica Zubac , Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma among them — and could only carry them to 37 wins in the 2018-19 season, when he dealt with considerable injury for the first time in his career.

So, the Lakers pivoted, partnering James with his fellow Klutch Sports client, Anthony Davis , who helped deliver a championship inside the Orlando bubble in October 2020.

“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers — including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part off the Lakers family.”

The partnership between James and Davis lasted five-plus seasons together, resulting in playoff series victories in just one other year, when they reached the 2023 Western Conference finals. The Lakers, in February 2025, stunningly traded Davis in a package for All-NBA First Team mainstay Luka Dončić , who became the newest face of the franchise.

Should the Lakers have traded James then? They opted not to, patching together a fringe contender around Dončić, James and the emergence of Austin Reaves . They lost in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, and then — largely without Dončić and Reaves, who were both injured — James led them to the second round of the 2026 playoffs, where they were soundly swept by the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder .

James had become a third option in his 40s — albeit arguably the league’s best — in Los Angeles, where Dončić and Reaves are now signed for the long term. He served as a primary playmaker when both went down in the postseason, but he was no longer good enough to lead a hodgepodge of players beyond the second round of the playoffs, where younger teams led by rising superstars (like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ) awaited.

He could still have been a fantastic third option in Los Angeles, though the Lakers had trouble building a contending-level defense around Dončić, James and Reaves. It appears we will never see what that trio could have accomplished when healthy — and when paired with an elite rim runner and/or a two-way wing — but it was too difficult to build around James’ $52.6 million salary, especially if he still was going to be serving as a third option.

Now, he has his choice of destinations , so long as he accepts a pay cut, and it appears he is willing to do so. The Golden State Warriors , Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, all for obvious reasons, have emerged as his most likely landing spots, according to Charania .

He will be great wherever he lands, assuming he stays healthy, and he can help his next team pursue a championship, even at 42 years old, in his tireless pursuit of equaling Michael Jordan’s six titles (really, the only thing he has left to accomplish in this league).

James stands at four rings as it is, because he only won the one title in L.A., the same number of championships he delivered in Cleveland and one less than he did over a brilliant four-year stretch in Miami — the peak of one of the greatest careers in history.

He is past his prime now. That he can still contribute at the level he did this past season — as an All-Star for the 22nd time — is beyond remarkable. That he won’t be continuing to do it in L.A. is somewhat of a bummer, considering how good he had become at playing off of Dončić and Reaves. But he will have to ply his trade now as a sidekick to Stephen Curry , Giannis Antetokounmpo or Donovan Mitchell , which will be fascinating to watch.

Unlike past destinations, James will not be leaving the Lakers in shambles. These are not the 2011 Cavaliers, the 2015 Heat or the 2019 Cavs. They have Dončić and Reaves, both entering their primes, and now — with James’ hefty salary off the books — they have the financial flexibility to chase two-way contributors for their star duo, much like how the Dallas Mavericks built a team that reached the 2024 NBA Finals around Dončić and Kyrie Irving .

There is still much work to be done in L.A., but that is no longer James’ problem. Sandro Mamukelashvili and Quentin Grimes , the names first bandied about at the start of free agency, according to insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer , do not inspire confidence.

The question, then, again: Was James’ tenure on the Lakers a success? He delivered the one title, same as Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, and he owed the city no more than that. He will not go down alongside Magic Johnson or Kobe Bryant as gods of the franchise. Nor does he belong on the same tier as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Shaquille O’Neal, two more Hall of Famers who each won multiple championships with the Lakers.

But LeBron James is a Lakers Legend, no doubt.

It is Dončić’s era now as the standard-bearer of this storied franchise. And James’ act is a tough one to follow, just as Bryant’s was before him, or Magic’s was before him, and so on. These are the Lakers, cycling through superstars, and there is a new one atop the bill.