Is this LeBron James' last NBA season? Lakers star still undecided about retirement timeline, per report

LeBron James set yet another NBA record on Nov. 18 when he suited up for his 23rd season, breaking a tie between him and Vince Carter for most seasons by a single player. The four-time champion missed most of the first month of the season due to dealing with sciatica, and in the two games he's played he's acted like a Swiss army knife for the Lakers.

He's obviously still working on his conditioning, but even still he's dished out 20 assists in two games, he's operating more like a table setter than the main offensive engine. After all, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves proved they're capable of shouldering the scoring load when James was sidelined. And -- with James turning 41 at the end of December -- asking him to do everything offensively isn't ideal, even if he still probably could.

James has managed to defy expectations and ward off father time with each passing season, and as everyone else wonders when he'll finally retire, it appears as though he's still wondering the same thing. According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, James is still unsure if this will be his last season, or if he'll continue on for one or maybe even two more years.

That's not exactly new information, no one has known when James will finally call it a career. But many thought he'd play at least one more year past this, given there was no big announcement prior to the start of the season that this would be his farewell tour. There is certainly the chance that James just announces at the end of the season that he's retiring, but for a guy who excels in the spotlight, it's difficult to imagine him saying no to a final season being all about him and his accomplishments before he hangs it up.

If James does decide to play past this season, he may be doing it on a different team as his contract with the Lakers expires after the season, making him an unrestricted free agent. Obviously the Lakers could just re-sign him, but over the summer the messaging from the Lakers hinted that they'd let James decide on where he wants to end his story. Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said in September that he'd "love if LeBron's story would be to retire as a Laker," but that the organization wants to give James the freedom to choose his own path this summer, whether that's retiring at the end of the summer, signing one more year in L.A., or signing elsewhere to end his Hall of Fame career.

Until we get confirmation from James himself, everyone is left to speculate about when his career will end. Given that James is unsure if this will be his final season, we should all appreciate every game he's got left because this might be the end.