LeBron James makes shocking announcement about his basketball future

LeBron James delivered a truly SHOCKING announcement on Wednesday at the ESPY Awards. After long, serious deliberation about his future, The King informed the masses he will not be retiring and will return for his 21st season.

Now, at last, the Lakers can move forward with their offseason knowing James’ decision.

LeBron threw the basketball world into turmoil when he mentioned he was considering retirement following the Western Conference Finals. His comments at the postgame presser also had the completely unintended consequence of directing attention away from the Lakers being swept and the Nuggets making the NBA Finals.

With absolutely nobody having any idea which way LeBron would ultimately go, the Lakers were forced into a limbo this offseason. Fortunately, the Lakers were able to make enough moves in free agency to stay afloat while waiting for LeBron. Kudos to Rob Pelinka and the front office for navigating such a tricky situation in which LeBron offered no insight as to whether he would be coming back or not.

At last, LeBron ended his two-month hold on the NBA world with his announcement on Wednesday. You could hardly blame him for wanting to make sure he made the right decision.

Now, the Lakers can move forward knowing that LeBron will be part of their future, at least for next season. Surely, he will send an apology to Michael Malone and the Nuggets for perhaps taking a small amount of attention away from them, again entirely unintentionally.

At least they were respectful of the situation and didn’t fire back an incredibly long set of shots back at the Lakers time and time again to the point that it became borderline obsessive. Because that would be weird.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.