Steph Curry and LeBron James have faced each other in four NBA Finals and finally got to team up this summer in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
James had previously said that Curry was a superstar he would “love” to play with one day, and his wish was granted at the Olympics. The two played beautifully together, creating a deadly two-man game for Team USA. won the gold medal with an unbeaten streak.
If not for James’ agent, Rich Paul, it’s possible the two era-defining superstars could have teamed up in the NBA as well.
According to a longtime NBA insider, Marc SteinPaul was “categorically opposed to the idea” of James leaving Los Angeles for the Bay Area when the two teams were engaged in preliminary discussions about James’ availability at the ownership level.
From Stein Sub-stack:
Sources say Paul implored both teams to abandon the concept — despite owner-to-owner dialogue between the Warriors’ Joe Lacob and the Lakers’ Jeanie Buss and (Draymond) Green’s determination to pressure James to move to the Bay Area — largely because he wanted to protect James from a potential backlash by switching teams for the fourth time in his career.
Shortly after last year’s trade deadline, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne revealed The Warriors tried unsuccessfully to convince the Lakers and James to consider a trade to Golden State. Their reporting included details about Warriors owner Joe Lacob reaching out to his Lakers counterpart, Jeanie Buss, to gauge whether James’ apparent public frustration with the Lakers’ season could pave the way for a trade. What followed is consistent with Stein’s ticking clock of events.
Excerpt from ESPN’s February 14 article:
Buss told Lacob the Lakers had no desire to trade James, but he would need to seek answers about James’ mindset from his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, sources said. Ultimately, the answer was resounding on the eve of the trade deadline: Paul told Lacob and Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. that James was not interested in a trade and wanted to remain a Laker, sources said. When Dunleavy reached out to Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka in those hours before the trade deadline, Dunleavy was told the same thing: The Lakers wanted to keep James, sources said.
The Lakers, of course, kept James and then signed him to a two-year, $101 million contract this offseason. They also selected his son, Bronny James, in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft, fulfilling a longtime dream for the four-time league MVP.
Pursuing James, even if a trade was a far-fetched dream, represents a continued effort by the Warriors to add a superstar-level player around Curry. They reportedly tried to acquire Paul George via a trade with the Clippers, but George ended up signing with the 76ers in free agency. They then turned to Lauri Markkanen, who eventually extended with Jazz.
With the dust settled after the offseason, the Warriors are set to enter the 2024-25 season with a roster that improved on margins but lost franchise icon Klay Thompson and veteran point guard Chris Paul. Golden State added Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson and De’Anthony Melton to replace them as capable role players.
Still, they still don’t have a true No. 2 scoring option next to Curry, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to fill that in a big way.
