LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James will play another season for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 38-year-old superstar announced his intentions on stage at The ESPYS on Wednesday night after accepting the record-breaking performance award for becoming the NBA’s career scoring leader.
At the end of last season, in which he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark, James had said he wasn’t sure if he would be back.
“In that moment I’m asking myself if I can still play without cheating the game. Can I give everything to the game still? The truth is I’ve been asking myself this question at the end of the season for a couple years now. I just never openly talked about it,” James said.
“I don’t care how many more points I score or what I can and cannot do on the floor. The real question for me is can I play without cheating this game? The day I can’t give the game everything on the floor is the day I’ll be done. Lucky for you guys that day is not today.”
The crowd at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood let out a huge cheer.
“So yeah, I still got something left,” James said. “A lot left.”
He was presented his trophy by wife Savannah, sons Bronny and Bryce and daughter Zhuri. In her introductory remarks, Savannah said, “I think LeBron James is the baddest …”
She began to say an expletive but cut herself off as Zhuri exclaimed, “Mom!”
James later returned and was joined by Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade to honor Carmelo Anthony, who recently retired after a 19-year career.
Earlier, Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks told the audience that he pitched much of the 2022 season with non-Hodgkin lymphoma before being diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease.
He accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. The 34-year-old Australian was declared cancer-free in late April and returned to the mound a month later.
“That was an eye-opener. I didn’t feel too many symptoms but I had some lumps around. It just shows you the power of the mind. When you don’t think anything’s wrong and you believe that you can do anything, you can do anything,” Hendriks said.
“I was throwing 100 miles per hour while going through Stage 4 lymphoma and then coming back after doing eight rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of immunotherapy and was able to get out there and throw 96 miles per hour. That isn’t physically who I am. That’s all this, that’s all mental.”
The U.S. women’s soccer team was honored with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for its fight to receive equal pay. The players sued U.S. Soccer in 2019 and last year reached agreement on a deal that splits men’s and women’s pay equally.
