{"id":784322,"date":"2026-07-07T07:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T07:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784322\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T07:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T07:36:09","slug":"six-teams-still-in-mix-for-lebron-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784322\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Teams Still In Mix For LeBron James?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appearing on the All NBA Podcast alongside Adam Mares on late Sunday\/early Monday (YouTube link<\/a>), Marc Stein of The Stein Line said six teams still believe they\u2019re in the mix to sign free agent forward LeBron James<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThe Sixers, the Timberwolves, the Heat, your Nuggets \u2014 based on everything I\u2019ve been told all weekend \u2014 they all still believe they\u2019re in with a chance,\u201d Stein told Mares of ALL City\/DNVR Sports. \u201cI think the Warriors were portrayed as an early favorite, not the early favorite \u2026 because they were the team we knew was determined to go after LeBron if he parted with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 And then obviously you\u2019ve got the hometown (Cavaliers). So those are the six teams that people are talking about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look, all of my reporting on this, I am taking my cues from the teams in the chasing pack,\u201d Stein continued. \u201cWhen it comes to LeBron, (agent) Rich Paul has done a lot of talking. \u2026 But the teams that are in this, they all still believe as we speak that they are still in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein mentioned that LeBron hadn\u2019t actually had any direct communication with any interested teams and those clubs were curious to learn if he would take meetings and listen to pitches. Evidently that isn\u2019t in the cards, as Chris Haynes reported on NBA TV (Twitter video link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no meetings, no pitches that will allow teams to sit down with LeBron,\u201d Haynes said. \u201cLeBron will make his decision based off the intel that he\u2019s receiving from his agent, Rich Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein and his colleague Jake Fischer reported over the weekend that all the suitors who believe they have a realistic chance at landing James are \u201cprepared to wait as long as it takes\u201d to see where he\u2019ll go. They also reported that while the race remains fluid, there\u2019s \u201ca growing belief\u201d among the teams pursuing LeBron that the idea of finishing his career with the Cavs appears to be \u201cthe scenario to beat,\u201d and Stein reiterated that point to Mares.<\/p>\n

Brian Windhorst of ESPN confirmed that sentiment on Monday. On the network\u2019s \u201cPardon My Take\u201d show (Spotify link<\/a>), Windhorst said nearly every source he\u2019s spoken to around the league privately thinks James will finish out his career in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to people in Philly, and I\u2019m like, \u2018What do you think?\u2019\u201d Windhorst said, per Kevin Topley of NBC Sports Bay Area<\/a>. \u201c\u2018We\u2019re afraid it\u2019s Cleveland.\u2019 Everybody I talked to is like, \u2018We\u2019re afraid it\u2019s Cleveland.\u2019 Nobody seems like they have optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Topley, Windhorst was sure to clarify he wasn\u2019t making his own prediction about what James might do, but the fact that so many of the teams pursing him are pessimistic about their chances is noteworthy.<\/p>\n

On a related note, Anthony Slater of ESPN<\/a> continues to hear Golden State holds a \u201clow level of optimism\u201d that LeBron will pick the Warriors as his next team. That said, Golden State intends to maintain its roster flexibility until James makes a decision, Slater confirms.<\/p>\n

Paul told Mark Medina on Saturday that he didn\u2019t expect James to make a decision \u201canytime soon<\/a>.\u201d Haynes reiterated that during his television spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Appearing on the All NBA Podcast alongside Adam Mares on late Sunday\/early Monday (YouTube link), Marc Stein of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,7896,85],"class_list":["post-784322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-lebron-james","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}