As the Lakers notified, the 37-year-old can not deny the last two season games in the NBA because of his ankle injury. Thus James loses the chance to his after 2007/08 second TopScorer title.

“I have given everything I had when I was on the field,” James wrote at Twitter. A career end is not an issue for him: “We’ll see each other again in the fall.”

According to NBA regulations, a player must deny at least 58 of the 82 games of the regular season to go into the rating for the best point average. James, who has been injured since the end of March, comes to 56 games. With 30.3 points on average, James achieved his second best career value after 2005/06 (31.4). Just better in the current season is only Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers / 30.4).

The Lakers had missed the play-offs in the fourth season with James for the second time. In 2019/20, “Purple and Gold” had brought the title, 2020/21 lost in the first play-off round. Without James, there were last eight bankruptcies in series.