Ramona Shelburn and Adrian Wojnarowski dropped the bombshell that the Golden State Warriors tried to trade for LeBron James during the midseason trade deadline. The Warriors thought they had a chance but James decided to stay put with the Lakers. This speculation of a chance emerged out of LeBron James sharing an hourglass emoji in his X tweet, around a week before the February 8 trade deadline.
Advertisement
The Warriors perceived the hourglass emoji as James’ indication that his time with the Los Angeles Lakers was running out.
⌛️
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 31, 2024
Therefore, Warriors GM Joe Lacob reached out to Lakers President and Owner Jeanie Buss to express his desire to acquire LBJ. Since Draymond Green and LeBron James share the same agent, Rich Paul, there were also talks of Green pursuing Lacob to trade for James while urging Paul to also make a move in that direction. But on the eve of the trade deadline, when the Warriors management tried their hand at acquiring James, Paul made it clear that James wanted to stay with the Lakers.
It wasn’t just the Warriors who made a run at bringing in the All-Time NBA Leading Scorer. Philadelphia 76ers’ president Daryl Morey also called General Manager Rob Pelinka to seek a trade for James. However, once again Rich Paul made it clear that James is not interested in any other team than the Lakers. In the wake of such substantial developments, ESPN Analyst Brian Windhorst threw many off their feet.
On his program, he declared that Stephen Curry and LeBron James want to play together for Steve Kerr. On ESPN’s ‘First Take’ after building suspense about James going to the Warriors, Windhorst delivered a perfect anti-climax. He stated that it is the 2024 Olympics USA Men’s Basketball Team where the two want to play under the tutelage of Kerr.
No one uses dramatic effect better than Windy pic.twitter.com/VTv6ygPuXG
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 14, 2024
Apart from this humor-filled episode, there are serious talks of LeBron James changing his team soon. There are murmurs that he is eyeing the 2024 Draft where his son Bronny James can land a spot. Considering the Warriors have no draft picks for the 2024 draft unless they make a trade, these chances look slim. Therefore, James is not likely heading for the Warriors during the offseason.
Is LeBron James waiting for Bronny James to decide his next stop?
During his show ‘Undisputed’, Skip Bayless called Bronny and LeBron “the sun and the moon”. He implied that LBJ would do anything to stick close to his son. Since Bronny James is at USC, whose home court Galen Center is less than two miles away from the Lakers’ home floor Crypto.com Arena, the forward decided to stay put.
For Bayless, he is waiting for the 2024 draft to see where Bronny James lands if he does declare for the draft. Then he may make a bid to join the team where Bronny will start his NBA career.
.@RealSkipBayless reacts to reports of the Warriors proposing a trade for LeBron:
“LeBron could’ve made this happen because he holds all the cards. But 2 things are true: Bronny plays at USC and AD is star power.” pic.twitter.com/mhUitHiduZ
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) February 14, 2024
But it’s not just the father-son connection in play here. According to Bayless, James also decided to stay because he has Anthony Davis with him in the Lakers. The Warriors do have a defensive dynamo Draymond Green but they don’t have anybody as dominant as AD. Calling him a “Top-Five” player, the Undisputed Host argued that LeBron doesn’t want to play apart from the Defensive Player of the Year contender.
