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Like many others, Adam Silver would like to know which team LeBron James will be playing for next season.
The NBA commissioner’s desire to know James’s destination isn’t a matter of impatience, but rather practicality, as it will play a significant role in shaping the 2026-27 schedule for both the league and its media partners.
“Where LeBron plays will affect the schedule,” Silver said at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit on Thursday. “So I would like him to make his announcement already, so we can finish the schedule, because, as you might imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. But it will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc. So I need him to make a decision.”
The commissioner added that he has “no inside information” regarding which team James will ultimately sign with, although he said he does have his own “inkling,” which he wasn’t willing to publicly disclose.
In many ways, Silver’s concern regarding the schedule is understandable. Whether he was playing for the Cavaliers, Heat, or Lakers, James’s teams have been a staple of the NBA’s national TV package since he first entered the league in 2003.
The excitement surrounding James next season will be amplified, and not just because he’ll be playing for a new team. Already laying claim to the longest career in NBA history, it’s conceivable that the four-time MVP’s 24th season will double as a retirement tour, although James’s agent recently made it clear that’s not a given.
“No one said this is going to be his last year,” Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul said on his Game Over podcast earlier this month. “No one said that.”
As for where he’ll wind up, James’s free agency remains murky. In the nearly three weeks since he first announced that he won’t be returning to the Lakers, the 41-year-old has consistently been linked to the Cavaliers, Warriors, Heat, and 76ers, but has said very little to confirm—or deny—that his interest in those teams is mutual.
Yet despite the public uncertainty, it appears an announcement is on its way. Addressing his ongoing free agency with Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton during a live taping of his Mind the Game podcast at Fanatics Fest on Thursday, James told the audience, “I won’t hold you guys up too much longer,” a message that Silver and the league’s schedule-makers surely welcomed.
