LeBron James' hefty Lakers extension is all about winning, just not about winning games

This deal is about the beginning of the extended LeBron James farewell tour

In extending his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James has likely committed to a level of short-term professional mediocrity that seems counterintuitive for an all-time ambitious superstar hellbent on passing Michael Jordan as the game's greatest ever player.

Championships, we know, are the coin of the realm for the few basketball royalty like King James exceptional enough to vie for the Greatest Of All Time moniker. And LA, we also know, is clearly ill-equipped to provide their newly extended superstar a shot at another ring this year, or in the one or two additional years in which he'll now continue as a Laker.

But the extension -- which locks LeBron into Los Angeles at least an extra year, through the 2023-24 season, and which sources confirmed to CBS Sports includes that third-year player option for 2024-25 -- fits perfectly with the fascinating place LeBron has reached in his career: Both an end-of-the-road great basking in the quality of life and personal advantages that come with life in Los Angeles, and a sly strategic wink to his career-long goal of besting Jordan in the public eye.