Lakers rumors: The LeBron James salary game team officials played this season

The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2025-26 season recently came to an end with a sweep at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers now enter an offseason filled with big questions, headlined by the uncertainty regarding the future of LeBron James.

James has played eight seasons with the Lakers, but will hit free agency this offseason and could take his talents elsewhere. Much has been made about the massive salary Los Angeles had dedicated to him this season, and whether that hampered the team’s ability to build a more sensible roster around Luka Doncic, and now, more information has come to light from ESPN NBA insider Dave McMenamin on a unique strategy Los Angeles officials used to help determine a proper salary for the star moving forward.

Lakers officials would on occasion partake in a parlor game of sorts during games at Crypto.com Arena, sources told ESPN: An onlooker was asked to observe James play for a stretch, disregard his name and age and evaluate his play to come up with a salary number that “anonymous” player would deserve next season,” reported McMenamin.

McMenamin also cautioned that “…comparing James, the 2020 Finals MVP, to an anonymous 6-foot-9, 250-pound skills vessel could be viewed by James’ camp as insulting at best, lunacy at worst.”

Indeed, James’ value is worth a lot more to a team than just his pure numbers on the court, considering the seats he fills and the attention he brings with his star power alone.

Still, for a Lakers organization that understandably wants to prioritze building around Doncic moving forward, signing James to another massive deal might not be the most sensible route to go this offseason.

As of yet, there is no word on whether those partaking in the game came to a consensus on what a fair number for James would be.

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