sport news LeBron James is retirement talk as a 'bargaining chip' to see how far the ... trends now

LeBron James's talk of retirement is not serious but rather a distraction tool from playoff humiliation and a 'bargaining chip' to test the LA Lakers limits heading into the offseason. 

The NBA superstar made headlines with his comments after the Lakers were swept by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, with the legendary forward admitting 'I got a lot to think about'.

Reports followed suggesting that the 38-year-old was indeed considering retirement and if he does carry on, he was uncertain it would be with the Lakers.

However, a source close to LeBron has now revealed to DailyMail.com that an impending retirement for LeBron is in fact 'unfathomable' and not on the cards. 

Instead, they claim the forward is using the media circus around his talk of retirement as a tool to deflect attention away from the Lakers' humiliating clean sweep defeat and to also see how far the team is willing to go to keep him ahead of an offseason rebuild. 

'There will have to be a lot of big offseason changes to make the Lakers a championship team again and Lebron's focus is on winning another championship,' a source close to LeBron and the Lakers told DailyMail.com. 

'The reason for the retirement talk is actually two-fold. One, the Lakers were embarrassed and swept in the playoffs, and that really affects LeBron's overall legacy. Which is extremely important to him, so he wanted to change the talk that was out there, and he has successfully done that. No one is talking about them losing in the playoffs, they are just talking about his future instead. 

'And second, he wants to play with his son or against his son before he retires and just like Tom Brady did, he is going to come back to finish out his contract so he can dictate the next stage of his career. 

'It would be unfathomable for him to retire; it is just not going to happen. He is using this as a bargaining chip to see what the Lakers will do to keep him around. LeBron usually gets his way and this is no different.' 

James still has two years and $97million remaining on his current contract, but has a final year player option worth just over $50million.