Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James agree $85 million contract extension

The Lakers and LeBron James have agreed to terms on a two-year, maximum-salary contract extension, agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports tells Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports confirms (via Twitter) that an extension agreement is in place and that it will run through 2023. That means the new deal has essentially replaced LeBron’s 2021/22 player option with a guaranteed season and tacked one extra year onto his contract.

James, who has a $39,219,566 salary for 2020/21, can receive a 5% raise on that figure for the first year of his extension, which would result in a ’21/22 salary of $41,180,544, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). He can then receive an 8% raise for year two, which means a ’22/23 salary of $44,479,988. The end result would be a two-year extension worth about $85.66MM.

It’s not clear yet whether the final year of James’ deal will once again be a player option. If so, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Anthony Davis follow suit and sign a three-year contract of his own with a player option for 2022/23. That would put both Lakers stars on track to either opt out in 2022 or play out their contracts through ’23.

However, as cap expert Albert Nahmad observes (via Twitter), the extension can only include a new player option if LeBron technically picked up his existing ’21/22 option (worth $41,002,274) as part of the deal. CBA rules prohibit him from declining that option and then signing an extension that includes fewer than two guaranteed seasons.

Whether or not LeBron still has a player option at the end of his deal, he’ll no longer be eligible to opt out in 2021, taking one huge name off next year’s free agent market.

As Charania (Twitter link) and others have noted, LeBron’s son Bronny James is scheduled to graduate high school in 2023. If the NBA and NBPA have agreed to scrap the one-and-done rule by that point, it could open the door for Bronny to enter the 2023 draft and team up with LeBron during the ’23/24 season.

The elder James will turn 36 years old later this month, but has shown no signs of slowing down yet. In 2019/20, he averaged 25.3 PPG and 7.8 RPG to go along with a league-high 10.2 APG in 67 games (34.6 MPG). He earned First Team All-NBA honors, finished second in MVP voting, led the Lakers to a championship, and won his fourth NBA Finals MVP award.

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