Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, celebrating his 40th birthday Monday, said he could play another five to seven years in the NBA at a high-caliber level — though he conceded he would probably retire before then. The basketball superstar, speaking after a Lakers practice session, also said he plans to finish out his NBA career with the Lakers, and would not make a comeback after leaving the league — whenever that is.

Asked what might be the deciding factor about when to retire, James declared a lack of competitiveness would not be his reason.

“It won’t be because I can’t play this game at a high level,” James said. “To be honest, if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level for another five to seven years if I wanted to, but I’m not going to do that.”

James, in his record-tying 22nd NBA campaign, is averaging 23.5 points, 9.0 assists and 7.9 rebounds a game and shooting 49.6 percent from the floor.

He won a third Olympic gold medal with the US team of NBA stars in Paris this year and, after starting in the NBA as an 18-year-old rookie, now has a 20-year-old son as an NBA teammate.

James is a four-time NBA champion, four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, a 20-time NBA All-Star and owns the ever-expanding NBA records for most points and games played in a career.

James said he plans to play out his career with the Lakers.

“I think that’s the plan,” James said. “I would love for it to end here. That would be the plan. I came here to play the last stage of my career.

“I think my relationship with this organization speaks for itself. Hopefully I don’t have to go nowhere before my career is over.”

Once he is gone, James said, there will be no comeback attempts, as was the case with superstar Michael Jordan.

“No, no, no, no, no. But I will miss the hell out of it for sure,” James said. “But no, I won’t walk away and then come back.”

For his career, James is averaging 27.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.5 steals over 1,520 games.

The new Kobe Bryant statue outside of Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles will be updated after various spelling errors were discovered in the etching surrounding the sculpture’s base, as per a report in NBC News.

Basketball reporter Dre Voigt shared images of spelling mistakes he discovered on the statue honouring the Los Angeles Lakers icon, which shows a box score from Bryant’s 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. It also includes spelling errors in the names of Jose Calderon and Von Wafer in a replica box score on the statue. In addition to spelling Wafer’s first name “Vom” rather than “Von,” the word “decision” is also spelt wrong. Further, Calderon’s last name is “Calderson.” The list of Kobe Bryant’s career accomplishments had been formatted incorrectly on another side of the base.

It seems like Kobe Bryant’s statue has misspelled ‘Jose Calderon,’ ‘Von Wafer,’ and ‘Coach’s Decision.’

(h/t @drevoigt ) pic.twitter.com/Xg2DFRHltS

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 11, 2024

The sculpture depicts Kobe Bryant striking a posture during the historic game, in which he scored the second-most points of any player in NBA history.

A Laker’s spokesperson said that they are already working to fix the issue. “We have been aware of this for a few weeks and are already working to get it corrected soon,” he said in a statement.

The 19-foot, 4,000-pound bronze statue was unveiled on February 8 to commemorate his number 8 jersey. It is one of the three planned tributes to the five-time NBA Champion.

Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash with his daughter Gianna and seven others in January 2020. His wife, Vanessa, said that the two other statues will feature the father-daughter duo and the other will have the basketball player in his number 24 jersey.