LeBron James says hes still unsure if hell play in 24th season

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — LeBron James says he still doesn’t know whether the ball will keep bouncing for him beyond his record-setting 23rd NBA season, but he does want to make sure his heart is still beating.

“Yeah, I mean, I want to live,” James said Sunday before playing in his 22nd NBA All-Star Game when asked about his future plans for his career. “When I know, you guys will know. I don’t know. I have no idea.

“I just want to live, that’s all.”

James generally did not engage in several questions focused on his potential retirement this summer or career options after his playing days are over.

He acknowledged he still harbors interest in being part of an NBA ownership group someday — which could become a reality sooner rather than later after NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Saturday that the board of governors will discuss the issue of expansion in March

The 41-year-old said his focus is on the Los Angeles Lakers‘ success as a team, and not his individual uncertainty as he finishes out the final year on his contract, which is paying him $52.6 million.

“No, it’s [not about me],” James said. “It’s gearing up towards the postseason, so it has nothing to do with that. It’s the same. Same motivation. Same mind factor. We’ve got past the marathon, and now the sprint is about to start.”

The Lakers (33-21) are No. 5 in the Western Conference standings.

Despite being 12 games above .500 at the break, through the first 54 games of the season the Lakers have scored 6,264 points — and have allowed their opponents 6,264 points.

“I know that when we’ve played some of our best basketball this season, we look very good,” James said. “On the other side, when we’ve been terrible, we’ve looked disgusting. I think the most important [thing] is if we can get healthy, how many minutes we could be on the floor, how much chemistry we can build with the sprint starting.

“You would hope that you can have the regular season and kind of build that cohesiveness and things of that nature, but I’m hoping that if we can get healthy, that we can start to build that.”

James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have been healthy together for only 10 games so far this season, with L.A. going 7-3.

“Most important for our ballclub right now is health,” James said. “And I can’t state it any more clear.”

Doncic, who missed the Lakers’ past four games with a mild hamstring strain, said he will play limited minutes in the All-Star Game on Sunday.

James and Reaves are both healthy, so L.A. should be at full strength when it opens the season’s final stretch Friday against the LA Clippers.

“Our success is going to come down to, obviously, I think our health,” James said. “Our coaching staff is putting us in the right position. I think they’re going to give us a game plan every night, but when it comes to what we have to work with, we have to actually go out and see it. We haven’t been privy to having that opportunity much this year.”

And if the Lakers can get a clean bill of health down the stretch and into the playoffs?

“It is hard to say,” James said. “Because this is a new group. We added [Deandre Ayton], Marcus [Smart] and Jake [LaRavia] and we just got a new acquisition on our ballclub a couple games ago [in Luke Kennard]. So it’s too hard to really say what we’re capable of.”