Al Horford returning to Warriors on two-year deal after declining player option: Source

{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/GkT2JC65mk5eRyM/”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/GkT2JC65mk5eRyM/”,”name”:”What we know about LeBron James’ retirement decision”,”description”:”Dan Woike has the latest on what LeBron’s future plans are. “,”uploadDate”:”2026-05-22T19:41:41.534Z”,”duration”:”PT1M59S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https://cdn-media.theathletic.com/video-stream/auto-thumbnail/GkT2JC65mk5eRyM/cj49zB27ehwV.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https://video.nyt.com/athletic/streams/GkT2JC65mk5eRyM/cj49zB27ehwV/cj49zB27ehwV.m3u8″,”transcript”:”LeBron James is an unrestricted free agent. He does not have an option for next season. He does not know where he is going to play. He does not know if he is going to play, at least that’s the vibe I’ve gotten in the conversations I’ve had with him and people close to him throughout the course of the season. The way that this is gonna play out now is he’s gonna take a little time off. He’s gonna, you know, talk to his family, talk to his confidants, talk to his team, look at the options, and, and my guess is that he will not. Announce, yes, I’m, I intend on playing next season, um, because, quite frankly, he’s not a restricted free agent. He doesn’t know what the offers are. He doesn’t know what his options are yet. A more realistic thing would be, you know, if he does want to play next season, um, or he thinks he wants to, to test his body and get ready. But then to take a series of free agency meetings, talk to teams, figure out, um, what he’s willing to accept, figure out what’s out there for him. Um, we know, you know, there are only a handful of cap space teams available, um, the Lakers being one of them. There are the Brooklyn Nets, there are the Chicago Bulls. Neither of those teams, um, is in Los Angeles or ready to win. So I think he’s gonna consider some other teams. He’s gonna consider options where he feels like he can win a championship. But look, I think for a long time, he’s had options to go elsewhere, and he’s decided to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers. Um, the question becomes, what are the Lakers willing to offer him? Rob Plinka and JJ Reddick, but particularly Rob Plinka made it clear that while they want LeBron James, um, they would love to have him finish his career with the Lakers. You know, that, that’s not priority number one for them this offseason. Priority number one is to build around Lukadancic. And I think that they need, uh, a rim-running center. They need more athleticism on the wings, and they would love to fit LeBron James into that plan. It’s just a matter of if it’s if the money’s gonna work, if he’s willing to take it, and most importantly, if he wants to play next season.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/edit-guidelines/”,”sameAs”:”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Dan Woike”}]}