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On Monday night, after the Lakers were swept out of the Western Conference semifinals by the reigning champion Thunder, LeBron James walked up to the podium looking less like a basketball player and more like a man standing on the edge of a cliff, staring out into the fog.
LeBron’s future is in doubt. His contract with the Lakers is up, and he will officially become a free agent June 30. He essentially has three options: return to the Lakers, sign with another team or become a free agent.
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“I don’t know,” he said when asked about his future.
LeBron may not know what his future holds, but renowned body language expert Judi James (no relation) has a guess.
Judi is a leading communication and body language expert who regularly appears on CNN, BBC News, Sky News and more. She was commissioned to study LeBron’s body language in his six-minute postgame interview and identified a series of physical “tells” that may determine what he decides to do.
First, Judi’s biggest takeaway is retirement is something LeBron appears to be genuinely considering after completing his 23rd NBA season.
“In just over six minutes, LeBron performed nearly 20 acts of sucking his lips inward,” the body language expert observed. “That’s often associated with regret, restraint or self-soothing.”
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Judi watched the news conference on mute several times before turning on the sound. That allowed her to study LeBron’s body language without context of what he was talking about.
“Watching this interview on mute, there are gestures that suggest firstly deep regret and something [bordering] on sorrow and secondly conflicted thinking,” Judi said.
Body language expert Judi James says LeBron is conflicted about retirement. Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
After watching the news conference with the sound on, the regret and sorrow were likely related to the Lakers’ season ending sooner than LeBron wanted it to. But LeBron’s conflicted thinking was something she noticed specifically when he discussed his future, which aligns with his answer.
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Judi also noted exaggerated nose-twitch movements that…
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Publish date : 2026-05-13 22:09:00
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