As Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James enters his 23rd NBA season, his “Decision 2.0” has caught many by surprise. Fans and analysts alike anticipated that the 2025-26 season would be his last, but James’s recent move seemed to fake out those expectations. Among those disappointed was former NBA player and FanDuel Sports analyst Lou Williams.
The marketing behind James’s second “Decision” was a Hennessy ad, which didn’t sit well with Williams. Speaking on FanDuel Sports’ Run It Back, Williams expressed why he felt the ad sent the wrong message, especially to kids.
“It’s the dad and the coach in me,” Williams said. “When you flirt with the Decision 2.0, the first time it was about the Boys & Girls Club. So, when you do it again, you involve the kids. My daughter texted me, ‘Is LeBron retiring?’ So, now, you have this age of kids waiting to hear his decision, and we’re inviting them to a Hennessy party.”
Williams’s co-host, Chandler Parsons, shared a similar sentiment, admitting that he didn’t appreciate the new ad.
“I thought it would be something worthy of making a decision about [retiring],” Parsons explained. “So, yeah, I got duped a little bit. But I didn’t love this. You’re LeBron James, man. It just felt like a reach for attention when you’re the last person that needs that. I was not a fan.”
Adding to the news surround James is his current health status. For the first time in his career, LeBron will not start the upcoming regular season due to a sciatic nerve injury on his right side. This injury will keep him sidelined for at least the first few weeks, causing him to miss the Lakers’ entire preseason.
### Skip Bayless Rips LeBron James’ New Ad Ahead of Lakers’ Season
Few NBA analysts have been less critical of LeBron James than Skip Bayless. However, even Bayless didn’t hold back his frustration over James’s Decision 2.0 ad with Hennessy.
Speaking on the Skip Bayless Show, Bayless expressed disappointment over the move at this stage of James’s illustrious 23-year career.
“It was an iconic sports moment because we’d never seen anything like that,” Bayless said, referring to LeBron’s original 2010 “Decision” to join the Miami Heat. “It was a GOAT-ish sort of endeavor. And to take that decision, ‘The Decision,’ and stoop to cheapen it, to sell it out? To make money, to launch some new Hennessy brand of Cognac? Really, you would stoop to that, LeBron, as you enter this stage and age, as you enter year 23, age 40?”
Looking ahead, the Lakers will host the Golden State Warriors in their regular-season opener on Tuesday, a game fans will be eagerly anticipating as LeBron continues his quest toward an unprecedented NBA legacy.
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