LOS ANGELES (AP) – LeBron James will play another season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 38-year-old superstar announced his intentions on stage at The ESPYS on Wednesday night after accepting the record-breaking performance award for becoming the NBA’s career scoring leader.
At the end of last season, in which he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark, James had said he wasn’t sure if he would return.
“At this moment I wonder if I can still play without cheating the game. Can I give the game my all yet? The truth is, I’ve been asking myself this question at the end of the season for a couple of years now. I just never talked about it openly,” James said.
The crowd at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood cheered wildly.
“So yeah, I still have something left,” James said. “There’s a lot left.”
Wife Savannah, sons Bronny and Bryce and daughter Zhuri presented him with his trophy. In her opening remarks, Savannah said, “I think LeBron James is the baddest…”
He started to curse, but was cut off as Zhuri exclaimed, “Mom!”
James returned later and joined Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade to honor Carmelo Anthony, who recently retired after a 19-year career.
Earlier, Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks told the audience that he pitched much of the 2022 season with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma before being diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease.
He accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. The 34-year-old Australian was declared cancer-free in late April and returned to the mound a month later.
“That was an eye opener. I didn’t feel too many symptoms but I had some lumps. It just shows you the power of the mind. When you don’t think anything is wrong and you believe you can do anything, you can do anything Hendriks said.
“I was throwing 100 miles an hour while going through stage 4 lymphoma and then coming back after doing eight rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of immunotherapy and I was able to go out and throw 96 miles an hour. I’m not physically who I am. That it’s all that, it’s all mental.”
The U.S. women’s soccer team received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for their fight for equal pay. The players sued US Soccer in 2019 and last year reached an agreement on a settlement that splits men’s and women’s pay equally.
Briana Scurry, goalkeeper for the national team from 1994 to 2008, saluted the 1985 team.
“They’re the foundation of this whole community of giants,” he said.
The Buffalo Bills training staff received the Pat Tillman Award for Service, awarded for saving the life of safety Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest in a game in Cincinnati in January.
The staff was greeted by a standing ovation. They clustered around Hamlin on stage, hugging him and patting him on the back. With his back to the audience, Hamlin bowed his head and appeared to break down. He has since recovered and plans to play this fall.
“Damar, first and foremost, thanks for staying alive, bro,” Bills head coach Nate Breske said.
“We are not used to having the spotlight on us. We were just doing our job, but the idea of service is certainly something that is rooted in our profession and something we are very proud of,” he told the audience.
Breske urged support for funding for automated external defibrillators and CPR training, especially in underserved communities, as well as for athletic trainers in youth sports.
“Learn CPR and how to use an AED because they save lives,” he said.
Patrick Mahomes was honored as the top male athlete, while skier Mikaela Shiffrin received the women’s sports honor.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has won two Super Bowls in his five seasons and was named the game’s MVP each time, including last February. 28 years ago in September.
“It was an incredible season. There were a lot of highs, a lot of lows,” Mahomes said. “I appreciate my teammates, my coaches, the guys that are here. I’m back in camp next Tuesday, so this is a big award. But we’re going to do this again , we’ll keep going.”
Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race in March, breaking the mark set by Ingemar Stenmark for most such victories by any skier. He won an 88th Cup race as well as the overall title for the season.
“This season was absolutely amazing and there was a lot of talk about records and it made me think, why is a record really important?” Shiffrin said. “I just feel that it’s not important to break records or reset records. It’s important to set the tone for the next generation, to inspire them.”
Sports talk host Pat McAfee handled the opening monologue in his first major public appearance since joining ESPN in May.
The show was without its usual celebrity host as a result of the Hollywood writers’ strike. McAfee offered a number of hints that comedian Kevin Hart had lined up for the gig, but that Hart chose to support the Writers Guild of America instead.
An ESPN spokeswoman said a production team worked with the anchors on their opening remarks. The usual pre-taped comedy sketches were absent.
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