LeBron James has issued a warning to the Lakers, but will they respond?

Melissa Rohlin

FOX Sports NBA Writer

An unofficial warning has been issued to the Los Angeles Lakers.

When LeBron James exercised his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season on Sunday, his commitment came with a parachute string.

Build a winning roster now … or else.

The pressure is on for the Lakers, who are balancing two timelines.

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

On one hand, they have a 40-year-old superstar who defied logic and the rules of aging by making an All-NBA team and being a top-10 MVP contender in his 22nd season, an unprecedented feat. James wants to return for another season, but there’s a caveat: He wants to win his fifth championship.

And on the other hand, they have the 26-year-old superstar in Luka Doncic, whom they acquired from Dallas in February in what was widely considered the most shocking trade in sports history. Doncic is the type of player who could make them championship contenders for another 10 years.

So, they’d be remiss in not prioritizing the future. But if they can’t figure out a way to win now, they could risk losing James, who averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds last season.

James made that crystal clear through his agent, Rich Paul.

“He knows the Lakers are building for the future,” Paul told ESPN on Sunday. “He understands that. But he values a realistic chance of winning it all.”

Paul went on to acknowledge that the Lakers aren’t in an easy position.

“We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future,” he said. “We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what’s best for him.”

It’s clear that James wants to play for the Lakers. Otherwise, he could’ve opted out of his contract and become a free agent. His hope is to remain in Los Angeles, where he has played the last seven years, matching the longest stint he has had in any city over his career.

For James and his family, Los Angeles has become home. It’s the place where both of his sons graduated from high school. It’s the place where the biggest star in the league planted his roots in the sunset of his career.

James’ time with the Lakers has been filled with highs and lows.

When James joined the Lakers in free agency in 2018, he wanted to dispel the narrative that his streak of eight straight Finals appearances from 2011-2018 came with an asterisk because he was playing in the easier Eastern Conference. He went on to transform a Lakers team that had missed the playoffs six straight years into champions in 2020, carrying them to their first title in 10 years and their 17th overall.

(Photo by David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

But what’s also clear is James doesn’t have a lot of patience for losing. In five of James’ seven years with the Lakers, they’ve failed to get past the first round of the playoffs.

He has issued not-so-subtle threats to the Lakers before.

When the Lakers were languishing in February 2023, he told me: I still feel like I’ve got plenty of gas in this tank to help any franchise win a championship.” The word “any” was clearly a warning to Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka to make some major changes or risk losing the King.

Pelinka responded by trading Russell Westbrook and adding six players. The Lakers went on to reach the Western Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Denver Nuggets. Getting that close to the championship yet still being so far away clearly disturbed James, who, for the first time in his career, intimated he was considering retirement after the Lakers’ Game 4 loss.

But James decided to return. And the Lakers took another big swing at making him happy by drafting his son, Bronny, with the 55th pick in the 2024 draft, fulfilling his dream of them becoming the first father-son duo in NBA history.

James called playing with Bronny the greatest accomplishment of his career, but last season ended in disappointment, with the Lakers getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Minnesota.

In the immediate aftermath of the Lakers’ Game 5 loss to the Timberwolves, James said he wasn’t sure of his future plans. But Bronny made it clear he wanted his father to return to the Lakers for another season.

“Yeah, for sure,” Bronny told me in May. “However long he can come back for, it’s always a pleasure being around him.”

(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

It makes sense for James to play for the Lakers. His son is on the team. The coach, JJ Redick, is his former podcast partner and someone whom he backed throughout all the ups and downs of last season. And the acquisition of Doncic clearly breathed new hope into his title-winning aspirations.

But the Lakers have some glaring holes to fill.

Most notably, they need a center. After losing Anthony Davis in the deal to acquire Doncic, they’ve greatly lacked interior defense and rim protection. That was never more obvious than in their Game 5 loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Timberwolves, when Rudy Gobert looked like Shaquille O’Neal, finishing with 27 points and 24 rebounds.

The Lakers tried to add a center at the trade deadline in February, when they acquired Mark Williams from Charlotte in exchange for Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish and draft capital. But they rescinded the trade, alleging Williams failed a physical.

Williams didn’t buy that, telling me in February that he believed the truth was a bit more nuanced. “They had second thoughts,” he said.

Now, the pressure is on the Lakers to figure out something else. Or else.

James has earned the right to play on a winning roster.

He carried the flailing Lakers to the mountaintop. He became the league’s all-time leading scorer while wearing a purple and gold jersey. He’s still the best player on the court most nights despite being 20 years older than many of his opponents.

In many ways, making James happy benefits the Lakers. James was one of three players to average 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists from Dec. 30 to the end of the season, along with Nikola Jokic and Doncic.

And amid all the narratives that arose last season about Doncic’s professionalism and conditioning, who better to show him the ropes than James, whose fitness regimen is legendary?

Even though the Lakers have to balance their future goals with their current needs, they need to figure out a way to compete for a championship next season.

James has issued his threat.

And now the rumor mill is churning. Will James demand a trade? Could James return to Cleveland, where his career began?

Now, the pressure is on for Pelinka.

And that’s just what James wanted in pursuit of his fifth ring.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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