Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James will soon enter his 22nd NBA season and his seventh season in Southern California. It’s been a roller coaster for the future Hall of Famer in L.A., but nonetheless, it appears that he will stay in Los Angeles and will very likely finish his illustrious career in the purple and gold.
James is coming off a tremendous summer after leading Team USA to yet another gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. James was surrounded by Hall of Fame talent, and none might have been bigger than Golden State Warriors superstar guard Stephen Curry.
People have always wondered what a pairing of James and Curry would look like, and we got a glimpse of that in the Olympics. Talks among the basketball community only intensified once the Olympics were over about the superstar duo that could eventually team up in the NBA. That may seem like a long shot, but there was an opportunity for that to happen last season.
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NBA contributor Marc Stein said James’s agent, Rich Paul, was “adamantly opposed” to the idea of James being moved from L.A. to San Francisco. Stein said Paul was hesitant about the move due to the backlash his client would receive if he left L.A. to join his fourth team of his career.
“Sources say Paul implored both teams to scrap the concept — despite some owner-to-owner dialogue between the Warriors’ Joe Lacob and the Lakers’ Jeanie Buss and Green’s determination to lobby James to push for relocation to the Bay Area — largely because he wanted to insulate James from potential backlash over switching teams for the fourth time in his career,” Stein wrote.
There were some talks regarding James potentially being moved to Golden State at the deadline, but there was never actual smoke in that. We now know why.
James and Curry have been rivals for the better part of a decade. The two have faced each other in the NBA Finals four times and have had some epic battles against each other in the past. However, now that the two are getting older, they may have discussed eventually pairing up at the twilight of their careers.
This is all speculation, but it’s clear they enjoyed each other’s presence on the court. The Olympics were the first time they were on the same team for an extended period of time.
Nonetheless, as long as Paul is James’ agent, it’s best to assume that James will finish his career in Los Angeles.
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