NEW YORK (AP) — LeBron James may be ready to shed some light on his future plans.
The NBA's career scoring king — and free agent — is scheduled to speak publicly Thursday afternoon, meaning it's possible that James will be revealing where he plans to play this coming season or at least give some updates on where he is in the decision-making process.
James will be recording an episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast alongside guest co-host Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in New York on the opening day of Fanatics Fest, a four-day event featuring dozens of athletes, celebrities and sports legends. Single-day general admission tickets are sold out, organizers said.
That appearance has been planned for months; it was announced publicly in May.
James is the NBA’s oldest active player at 41 and the only player in league history to have a career spanning 23 seasons; this coming season will be his 24th. Speculation has been rampant for more than two months about his future, officially starting in May when the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs.
At that time, James said he didn’t know what he would be doing.
And the only developments that he’s revealed since came on June 30, when he said he would play this coming season and that he was leaving the Lakers after an eight-season run highlighted by the 2020 NBA title.
For more than two weeks, the NBA has been waiting to hear what comes next.
James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.
He’s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.
The podcast is the first of two known speaking engagements for James in New York on Thursday.
He's also planning to appear at the Game Plan Summit, an invitation-only event presented by CNBC and Boardroom. James is slated to have a conversation with Boardroom co-founder Rich Kleiman — Kevin Durant's longtime business partner — about “how he’s built an empire beyond basketball, what’s ahead for him in business, and why the next generation of athletes is poised to wield more influence than ever before.”
James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons — where he won his first two titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, leaving in 2018 to start an eight-season run with the Lakers.
Cleveland and Miami are believed to be on James' radar again as he weighs this decision, as are several other teams including Philadelphia, Minnesota and Golden State.
Reynolds reported from Miami.
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FILE - Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James throws chalk in the air before an NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
GENOA, Italy (AP) — Family members of the 43 people killed when Genoa’s Morandi highway bridge collapsed nearly eight years ago gathered at a courthouse Thursday, where deliberations were underway in the trial of 57 defendants charged in a disaster that exposed deep failures in the maintenance of Italy’s infrastructure.
The defendants include former executives of highway operator Autostrade per L’Italia, experts from its engineering company SPEA and former officials from Italy’s Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.
Most face charges, including negligent disaster and multiple counts of manslaughter stemming from alleged failures to maintain the bridge, which was part of a main route linking northern Italy with the French Riviera. Deliberations were expected to continue into the afternoon.
"Responsibility doesn’t stop at the top. Autostrade, SPEA and the Transport Ministry all had roles to play. I hope the state’s responsibility also emerges clearly," Egle Possetti, who heads a committee to preserve the memory of the bridge victims, told reporters outside the courthouse.
“I lost my sister, her two children, my brother-in-law and even their little dog. That’s where my determination comes from — to make sure they receive justice and that their deaths were not in vain,” she said.
On the morning of Aug. 14, 2018, a 200-meter (650-foot) section of the bridge gave way during a rainstorm, sending dozens of vehicles plunging to the ground.
Images of the collapsed bridge were seen around the world and shocked Italians on one of Italy’s busiest travel days, as millions headed out for the traditional Aug. 15 Ferragosto holiday that marks the peak summer vacation season.
Prosecutors have argued that years of maintenance neglect led to the collapse, and demanded combined sentences totaling nearly 400 years for all of the defendants. The defendants deny wrongdoing and say the fault was caused by a construction defect.
The verdicts and sentencing will cap a trial that spanned more than 280 hearings over four years.
“Our expectation is to feel our pain recognized ... and to have it acknowledged that this did not happen by chance, but because of serious failures in maintenance,” said Raffaele Caruso, one of the lawyers representing victims.
Considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1967, the Morandi featured three A-shaped concrete pylons and concrete-encased stay cables.
Caruso, who represents the family members of three victims, said that the trial showed that warning signs about defects in the pylon that collapsed had existed for decades. He cited maintenance on the other two starting in 1993 that was never extended to the third.
“From 1993 onward, the problem was known. We had three identical pylons. Two had already shown the same defect, and no one seriously asked whether the third one had it as well,” Caruso said.
The current Autostrade chief executive, Arrigo Giana, issued a public apology Thursday in an open letter published in major Italian dailies.
“The actions and decisions of some people left indelible scars,’’ said Giana, who joined Autostrade as CEO last year. “Offering today the apology that was not made then is, for us, a moral imperative that goes beyond establishing legal responsibility and the course of justice toward the truth.”
Autostrade and its subsidiary reached a deal on corporate liability earlier in the proceedings, paying roughly 30 million euros ($34 million) in financial penalties. The agreement spared the companies from a trial as corporate defendants and potentially much harsher sanctions, including exclusion from public contracts.
The settlements were reached after the companies adopted new compliance procedures aimed at preventing similar accidents, and after victims were compensated.
A new bridge designed by Genoa-born Italian architect Renzo Piano opened in 2020, spanning a memorial to the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse.
Colleen Barry reported from Milan.
FILE - A vehicle sits short of a section of the Morandi highway bridge that collapsed on Aug. 15, 2018, in Genoa, northern Italy. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)
FILE - Cars are blocked on the Morandi highway bridge after a section of it collapsed, Aug. 14, 2018, in Genoa, northern Italy. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)
