The big question surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers and their medium-term future is whether LeBron James will stay with them beyond this season. For the first time in his career, he’s in the final year of his contract, and there has been lots of speculation about what he may do next summer.

It isn’t out of the question that he will stay with the Lakers for an additional season or perhaps even longer than that. However, it is far from a foregone conclusion that he will do so, and it is certainly possible he will decide to hang up his Nikes for good after this coming season.

The team held a press conference on Thursday, and one topic that general manager Rob Pelinka addressed was James’ future.

Via ESPN:

“The first thing we want to do in terms of LeBron and his future is just give him absolute respect to choose his story with his family in terms of how many years he’s going to continue to play,” Pelinka said at his season-opening news conference. “He’s earned that right.”

James is entering his NBA-record 23rd season, and his Lakers contract will pay him $52.6 million this season. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists a game last season and is showing no signs of slowing down.

“We would love if LeBron’s story would be he retired a Laker,” Pelinka said, echoing a sentiment he has shared before. “That would be a positive story.”

James said recently that while his inevitable retirement “is coming,” it isn’t “here yet.” He will turn 41 years of age in late December, and he continues to defy the conventional wisdom having to do with how pro athletes are supposed to perform once they have a very high amount of mileage on their bodies.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Rob Pelinka talks about LeBron James’ future with Lakers