Within the next two months or so, LeBron James will decide what to do when it comes to his basketball career. The 41-year-old, who is about to become a free agent, could decide to sign a new contract to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers, join another team or simply retire.
The expectation around the NBA is that he will play at least one more season. But former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce recently said on the “Ticket & The Truth” podcast that James should retire — but not because he feels the league’s all-time leading scorer cannot play at a high level anymore.
“I think LeBron should retire,” Pierce said. “… Just for the simple fact that, at the age that he still receives the criticism that he still does.
“The greats wasn’t getting this criticism late. Nobody was criticizing Kobe [Bryant] when he wasn’t going to the playoffs in his last year. They was just enjoying his moments. Like the same with [Michael] Jordan and Washington.”
The standards do remain very high for James, but it is mainly because he is still a superstar-level player on a team that is competitive and features an MVP-level player in Luka Doncic. Bryant, toward the end of his career, was a very poor player following a torn Achilles and other serious injuries, and he was playing on a rebuilding Lakers team that offered him almost no support. Jordan, in his two seasons with the Washington Wizards, was playing alongside a mediocre supporting cast.
This year, James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists a game in the regular season and 23.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists a game in the playoffs. While the Lakers got swept in the Western Conference semifinals by the Oklahoma City Thunder, they were without Doncic, who had a hamstring strain, and their lack of overall depth and athleticism meant they were a bit short of being a championship-caliber team when healthy.
It should be noted that Pierce was a rival of James during James’ first several seasons. The latter had trouble getting past Pierce’s Celtics in the playoffs for a while until breaking through in the second round of the 2011 playoffs. Before the start of this season, Pierce said that he thought it would be James’ swan song in the NBA.
Earlier this month, Pierce correctly predicted that Oklahoma City would sweep the Lakers in the second round of the postseason.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Paul Pierce on why he thinks LeBron James should retire
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
