LeBron announces major decision: is this his retirement?

Tomorrow, October 7, 2025, could be a historic day for the NBA. LeBron James is set to make an announcement about his future at 12 noon Eastern Time. The player posted a message on X reading, “The decision of all decisions,” along with a short video clip showing him walking toward a chair placed under a basket, facing another chair for his interviewer. The video hints at a one-on-one conversation in which LeBron — though nothing has been confirmed — could announce his retirement, 22 years after making his NBA debut.

As he prepares to enter his 23rd season in the world’s best basketball league — something no player has ever done before — the Lakers forward had said he would clarify his future when the upcoming season ends, around June 2026. By then he will be 41 years old, and his contract with Los Angeles will have expired. He will be free to sign with any team, if he intends to continue playing professionally. That could be the announcement coming tomorrow. For now, nothing has leaked to the U.S. press, and it seems unlikely that anything will before LeBron speaks for himself.

LeBron’s Second Decision

The hashtag he used in his post, #TheSecondDecision, is a clear nod to the summer of 2010, when he announced on a live TV special titled The Decision that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat. That dramatic reveal — unprecedented at the time — made him public enemy number one in Cleveland, the city of his home state, where he had been a local hero just hours earlier. It also drew widespread criticism from basketball fans in and outside the U.S., who saw the live broadcast as overblown and self-indulgent.

Now LeBron finds himself in a very different stage of his career, savoring the final chapters of a legendary run that most observers rank among the top three in NBA history. But unlike most of his career, he is no longer the best player on his own team. That distinction has belonged to Luka Dončić since February, and the Lakers have made that clear by showing little urgency to extend LeBron’s contract. His future with the team beyond this season looks increasingly uncertain. Meanwhile, ticket prices for the Lakers’ final home game of the 2025–26 regular season — April 13, 2026, against the Utah Jazz — have jumped from $85 to $445 since LeBron’s post. A sign of things to come?

Some fans on social media suspect this could all be part of a promotional campaign tied to Amazon Prime Day, which falls on October 7 and 8. LeBron previously posted a teaser before last summer’s Prime Days (July 8–11), but in that case, it was clearly branded as an Amazon ad — and it came nearly a month before the sales event began. This time, the mystery has fans — and the NBA world — guessing.

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