LeBron James Retirement Odds Hit New Low After Lakers Exit

After 23 NBA seasons, the league’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, is currently without a team. This was of course by design, considering James let the Lakers know late last month that he would not be returning to Los Angeles. 

Once James made his intentions clear that we would not be back with the Lake Show for a ninth season, speculation persisted that he would soon link up with another team ahead of what would be his 24^th season. However, as we enter mid-July, James remains a free agent. 

Though the expectation is he’ll continue playing – he’s most often linked to returning to Cleveland for a third stint with the franchise who drafted him, making a second trip to Miami, or inking with Steph Curry and Golden State – the possibility does still exist that he’ll retire. That’s something that was regularly discussed last season as LeBron turned 41-years-old during the last year of his Lakers contract.

But despite his current free agent status and his age, Polymarket bettors aren’t exactly buying the idea that James may have played his last NBA game. The prospect of James calling it a career before the start of the 2026-27 season is trading at just 2%. By comparison, the same Polymarket betting market had James’ retirement trading at more than 20% in March.

That’s despite having been named an NBA All-Star for the 22^nd time the previous month. 

James’ retirement odds failing to less than 5%, make sense. He’s still playing at a borderline elite level, even if he doesn’t produce as many “wow” plays as he once did on a nightly basis. During the ’25-26 campaign, James contributed 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds in 60 games. Those numbers increased across the board in the playoffs, where James averaged 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 6.7 boards while leading LA into the second round of the playoffs.

Clearly, retirement can wait.

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