{"id":814901,"date":"2026-07-21T18:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814901\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:34:11","slug":"lebron-james-agent-sends-clear-5-word-message-to-frustrated-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814901\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James&#8217; agent sends clear 5-word message to frustrated fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James said his goodbyes to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> more than three weeks ago, and the NBA is still waiting to know his next destination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>James, 41, told the Lakers in late June that he isn&#8217;t coming back for a ninth season. That immediately set off a free-agency race with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/nba\/cleveland-cavaliers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/nba\/miami-heat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Heat<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/nba\/golden-state-warriors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Golden State Warriors<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/nba\/philadelphia-76ers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/nba\/minnesota-timberwolves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> all trying to sign him.<\/p>\n<p>Fans thought they would finally get a hint when he showed up at Fanatics Fest in New York last week, but he didn&#8217;t give anything crucial. Even though he hosted live tapings for &#8220;Mind the Game&#8221; and &#8220;The Shop,&#8221; he left without naming a team. And he did trigger a brief false alarm when he joked about wanting to play for a franchise that &#8220;trusts the process.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His agent, Rich Paul, addressed the wait during a live appearance on &#8220;The Pat McAfee Show&#8221; this week.\u00a0McAfee told viewers that King James has all the information he needs, joking that sports media will keep speculating until the king makes his call.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In response, Paul <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PatMcAfeeShow\/status\/2079603564339515756\" rel=\"nofollow\">told frustrated fans<\/a>, &#8220;Just have a little patience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;Just have a little patience with LeBron James..<\/p>\n<p>This is a very important choice for him and he can&#8217;t rush it&#8221; ~ <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RichPaul4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@RichPaul4<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/PMSLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#PMSLive<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7ShvUegLcC\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/7ShvUegLcC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PatMcAfeeShow\/status\/2079603564339515756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Paul explained that they are not toying with people&#8217;s emotions. He admitted he talked with Silver about the league&#8217;s scheduling crunch, but emphasized that the decision affects James&#8217;s family, legacy, and business interests far more than basketball.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You cannot rush it,&#8221; Paul added. &#8220;I think he&#8217;s earned the right not to be rushed.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And he didn&#8217;t give fans a potential date again, saying, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know. I wish I did know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania, who previously stated that the NBA is in &#8220;decision time,&#8221; <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheHeatCentral\/status\/2079284498559045728\" rel=\"nofollow\">also confirmed<\/a> after speaking with Paul that there is still no decision, choice, or set timetable.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>James <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.in\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/49378298\/lebron-james-not-ready-reveal-next-team-fun\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said at the CNBC\/Boardroom event<\/a> that he won&#8217;t hold everyone up much longer. So, fans can expect him to drop a major update sometime this week.<\/p>\n<p>More NBA news:<\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James said his goodbyes to the Los Angeles Lakers more than three weeks ago, and the NBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-814901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814901","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=814901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}