Jeanie Buss, Los Angeles Lakers owner, says the team will ultimately retire LeBron James’ jersey number.
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, will almost certainly receive the same honor with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat every time he hangs up his cleats.
Buss confirmed that James’ number will increase on the beams along with Lakers legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Kobe Bryant.
“As a Laker is a norm when a player is inducted into the Hall of Fame, retiring your jersey. I do not doubt that LeBron will make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame,” Buss said in an interview.
“We will remove his jersey. Knowing that he will make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he will retire his Lakers jersey, hands down.”
“We will do a discussion for sure, next time,” Buss said.
What to know?
Therefore, the question for the Lakers will be which number, or both, as they did with Bryant (numbers 8 and 24). In 2019-20 when James led Los Angeles to its 17th NBA title, he was ranked 23rd. He had moved to No.6 for the past three seasons, but said he will return to No.23 in 2023-24 in honor of the late Bill Russell. The NBA has retired the league number 6 in Russell’s honor.
Although last season, James, 38, averaged 8.3 rebounds, 28.9 points, and 6.8 assists in approx 55 games (54 starts). He averaged 27.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.0 assists in 278 games (277 starts) over five seasons with the Lakers. We hope the above article was helpful, if you think we missed something to mention then feel free to leave a comment below.