LeBron James says he’ll retire before turning 46 because his wife would get mad at him if he played that long

When LeBron James does things like complete tip dunks while putting up a near triple-double to help the Lakers complete a 35-point turnaround and blow out the New Orleans Pelicans, it can appear like he’s ageless. But the reality is that he’s not, and as much as his co-star Anthony Davis feels like it can help the Lakers stay rested to put teams away early and get some extra time on the bench in fourth quarters, James disagrees.

“No, man. I’m 36 years old, 18 years in the league. There ain’t no saving something for later on in the season. My body is ready to play whatever I need to play,” James said. “I go hard when I’m out there and then I start my treatment after the game. I wish I could bank time. I wish I was Justin Timberlake in that movie where I could bank some time, but I cannot do that at this point.”

Now, we should note that James did specify that he can’t do that “at this point,” which does seemingly confirm that he is trying to figure out how to put a green digital clock on his arm that allows him to see exactly how much time he has left to live and/or add time to the count, like Timberlake was able to do in the 2011 sci-fi cult classic “In Time.”

And as if James’ science team’s lack of a breakthrough in that department wasn’t good enough of news for the rest of a league he’s terrorized for the better part of two decades, he also had to have led to some sighs of relief when admitting that there are actually things that he can physically no longer do at age 36.

“But I wouldn’t tell you that,” James said when pressed by a reporter to specify what those things were. “But I continue to put myself in the best position I can be in. I train my body, I train my mind every single day. I come in to the arenas and the facility and I get in a lot of extra work, preparing my body, preparing my mind, and I hope I can continue to do what I’m doing right now at 36 and see what happens.”

Despite those efforts, though, he did admit mortality, and that he has an upper limit in mind for where his career could end.

“I’ll tell you, I don’t think that I can go until I’m 46. We can go 26 to 36, but I don’t think I can go to 46. I also don’t think my wife would like that very much,” James joked. “She wouldn’t like that either.”

Given that James has been in the NBA for half of his life at this point, for him to retire within the next decade is an understandable desire for the mother of his three children, Savannah James, who has been with him through all of it. At least, unless he does figure out how to add time to his arm clock during blowouts. Then maybe she’d reconsider.

But until James can do this...

...expect him to retire at some point in the next 10 years, because it’s like everyone always says: Happy wife, happy life.

And hey, in admitting to watching crappy sci-fi movies and that sometimes his wife gets mad at him, LeBron has never been more relatable. Maybe he is more like us than we realized. Other than the dunking on people at age 36 thing. That’s still pretty crazy.

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