{"id":951850,"date":"2026-07-22T13:02:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/951850\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:02:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:02:34","slug":"lebron-james-is-taking-his-time-team-hunting-but-the-warriors-as-an-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/951850\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James is taking his time team-hunting, but the Warriors as an option?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Take all the time you want, LeBron<\/a>. It\u2019s your life.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s annoying to have to hear about it every day, but it\u2019s your decision when to tell us where you\u2019re going to play your 24th season of pro ball.<\/p>\n

So, go ahead, keep NBA schedule-makers on pins and needles. Savor having workers at my local Trader Joe\u2019s discussing your future on a Monday in the middle of July. Enjoy your twilight limelight.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t tell us, on podcasts and in public appearances<\/a>, that the factors you\u2019re prioritizing are A) whether a team is built to win now; B) the proximity to your home in L.A.; and C) not money, but overall happiness \u2014 and then signal it might be the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers? They check all the boxes. That\u2019s \u201chome\u201d for real. And the Cavs are ready to win with a veteran difference-maker such as LeBron. Absolutely, it would be a happily-ever-after conclusion to the LeBron epic.<\/p>\n

The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers? Nowhere close to home, but they check a box too: They\u2019re both set up to win \u2014 and in the Eastern Conference, where they won\u2019t have to go through the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder to reach an NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

The Warriors, though?<\/p>\n

They check no boxes. Not a one. Not in 2026.<\/p>\n

That would be a \u2026 choice. But let no one act like this would be LeBron leaving the Lakers<\/a> for a more competitive situation. It wouldn\u2019t be LeBron landing in a more desirable locale.<\/p>\n

Line up Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami and Golden State and it\u2019s like seeing three diamonds and a square on \u201cSesame Street.\u201d A 3-year-old could tell that one of those is not like the others. But that\u2019s the third-most likely destination, as of Tuesday morning, according to the DraftKings Sportsbook.<\/p>\n

Sure, once upon a time, a starting lineup of Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, LeBron James, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis would have beaten almost anybody. But even those guys \u2014 besides 30-year-old Porzingis, they\u2019re all in their late-30s or early 40s, with a ton of NBA mileage \u2014 aren\u2019t beating Father Time.<\/p>\n

Remember when the Lakers put together a roster awash in washed-up stars in 2021, and how disastrous that was? Turns out pairing Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, DeAndre Jordan and, yes, Russell Westbrook was a recipe for a truly awful 33-win team.<\/p>\n

And the Warriors? They couldn\u2019t get out of the play-in tournament last season, when Curry played only 43 games and Butler played only 38. Also, remember, for the first time in LeBron\u2019s career, the now 41-year-old wasn\u2019t available to start the season. He missed the first 14 games with sciatica.<\/p>\n

Maybe Golden State could conjure up some magic in a playoff series \u2014 but over an 82-game regular-season marathon? No way, LBJ.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Former Lakers star LeBron James (23) and former Warriors forward Draymond Green, who opted out of his contract this summer, could team up with Golden State. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

(Wally Skalij \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

It could be that winning isn\u2019t everything for LeBron. The man\u2019s legacy is locked. He\u2019s won four NBA titles, three Olympic gold medals, 1,229 NBA games and counting. And he\u2019s winning this summer\u2019s engagement game too.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s come to a point that he just wants to play with his friends, and after earning $53 million with the Lakers last season, he\u2019s willing to sign a deal with Golden State for between $3.9 and $6 million \u2014 which is what the Warriors could pay him, according to ESPN cap expert Bobby Marks \u2014 to do that.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s lovely, but it doesn\u2019t change the fact that LeBron wouldn\u2019t be happy losing.<\/p>\n

And losing when he\u2019s the addition to Steph\u2019s team \u2014 and make no mistake, the Warriors are Steph\u2019s team \u2014 really wouldn\u2019t be fun.<\/p>\n

The superstar wars that will be fought between both players\u2019 infamously, uh, passionate fandoms wouldn\u2019t be fun.<\/p>\n

The daily drumbeat of criticism from talking heads who tuned into all of those televised games \u2014 not fun.<\/p>\n

But the commute! It\u2019s only 380 miles or so from Brentwood to Chase Center, and that\u2019s much closer than Cleveland or Philly or Miami.<\/p>\n

That makes sense \u2014 if you forget there are two NBA teams in the very city where LeBron\u2019s family lives. And on paper, they\u2019re both better than the Warriors. And his son plays for one of them!<\/p>\n

But one of those teams is the Clippers and the other has moved on from LeBron.<\/p>\n

Oh, the irony.<\/p>\n

The Lakers, if they weren\u2019t the ex-team, would check all the boxes. They\u2019re going to be competitive. They\u2019re a group LeBron enjoyed playing with. They are home. And LeBron would check a pretty big box for them too, if money really isn\u2019t a deciding factor.<\/p>\n

But the Lakers have replaced LeBron with Walker Kessler<\/a>, the 24-year-old defensive center who is the perfect complement to Luka Doncic. They\u2019ve put in place the pillars for their future, though they do still happen to have a LeBron-sized hole at forward that isn\u2019t going to be filled by LeBron.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s OK. The next chapter will start eventually, and likely it will be set in a location where LeBron can compete and have a good time, and that he and his family can feel good about.<\/p>\n

Or in San Francisco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Take all the time you want, LeBron. It\u2019s your life. Yes, it\u2019s annoying to have to hear about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":951851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[383215,44462,1582,276,3128,1910,3140,316,2961,8604,8600,3363,224,5337,3120,113136,3366,3007,6620,98285],"class_list":["post-951850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-24th-season","tag-box","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-game","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-home","tag-la","tag-lakers","tag-lebron","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-miami-heat","tag-steph","tag-stephen-curry","tag-team","tag-time","tag-warrior"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116963769495646289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}