Charles Barkley Hopes LeBron James Will Retire ‘While He Can Still Play’

Father Time is catching up with LeBron James. Sure, you might not know that based on what he’s still capable of doing on the floor — we’ve never seen a player consistently reach the highs James is capable of reaching at his age — but he’s going to turn 40 in December and he’s already started speaking about the end of his basketball playing career.

It’s led to plenty of speculation about when James is going to retire, and if Charles Barkley has his way, it’ll happen sooner rather than later. Barkley appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast and used his own experience at the end of his career to make the argument that James should retire “while he can still play.”

“I hope he retires soon,” Barkley said. “Because I hated the way I retired, cause I sucked.”

Barkley then made the case that “it ends badly for every jock,” and went on to point out some of the other Hall of Fame inductees who hung on for way too long, like Michael Jordan with the Washington Wizards and Patrick Ewing with the Orlando Magic.

“I remember telling myself my last two years, ‘Ok, I’m gonna get myself in great shape this summer, I’m gonna have a good year, then I’m gonna retire,'” Barkley said. “Then I figured out, like, playing against air, everybody’s good against air. Everybody is great against air. But when that 25-year-old is looking at you like, licking his lips, you’re like, ‘Oh, sh*t.’ And there’s nothing you can do.”