NBA insider Marc Stein believes LeBron James won’t retire after the 2025-26 season and may even finish his career with a team other than the Lakers.

At 40 years old, LeBron James is still performing at an elite level, but his long-term future with the Los Angeles Lakers is now in question.

According to veteran NBA insider Marc Stein, there’s a growing belief that James will not finish his legendary career with the Lakers.

In his latest newsletter, veteran NBA insider Marc Stein didn’t hold back, offering a bold prediction about James’ future that could reshape expectations about the final years of the superstar’s career.

“I believe that the 2025-26 season, purely speaking in a predictive voice, will not be LeBron’s last,” he wrote. “I repeat: This is something only he can really know and more of a gut-feel read from me rather than reporting, but I fall into the camp that expects him to announce to the world that a certain season will be his last before it starts.”

James is entering the final two years of his current contract. While some have speculated the 2025-26 season could be his swan song, Stein thinks otherwise — and even suggests that James could continue his career with another team.

“I believe that, by saying what I just said in the previous paragraph, it means that I expect him to retire in a uniform that isn’t purple and gold,” Stein continued. “It’s pretty clear at this juncture that the Lakers have launched the Luka Doncic Era. It certainly appears as though they are approaching the 2025-26 season as LeBron’s last in Tinseltown.”

Stein believes James still has more left in the tank and that 25 seasons in the NBA is “on the table.”

But he doesn’t expect James to break the record as the oldest player in league history, still held by Nat Hickey, who played at age 45.

That said, making another move at this stage in his life could be complicated.

“I also have to account for the possibility that I might be underestimating how difficult it could prove for James to switch teams (and cities) one more time after this season given how entrenched he and his family have become in Southern California,” Stein noted.