![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756111210_803_GettyImages-2165927656-e1739568693414.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n
Veteran forward LeBron James<\/a> has a better shot at winning his fifth NBA championship playing alongside Golden State Warriors<\/a> guard Steph Curry than his Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> teammate, Luka Doncic, per an NBA legend.<\/p>\n During his appearance on the \u201cNight Cap\u201d podcast<\/a>, Joe Johnson \u2014 a former seven-time NBA All-Star \u2014 was asked about rumors of the Warriors trying to trade for James.<\/a> In response, Johnson explained why Curry, not Doncic, would be a better basketball fit with James, a natural floor general.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I had to choose, I\u2019m going Steph,\u201d Johnson responded. \u201cNot only because he\u2019s proven, but he\u2019s gonna command so much attention that LeBron will really get to play a natural position, which is like more of a facilitator.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, he gonna probably still score about 22 to 25 points a night, but him facilitating? Oh my god! With his ability to pass the ball, with Steph\u2019s ability to move without the ball?\u201d<\/p>\n Warriors in Hot Pursuit of LeBron<\/p>\n According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, the Warriors have called the Lakers \u201cmultiple times\u201d in the past 18 months<\/a> in their quest to pair up James and Curry.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as LeBron James\u2019 future in Los Angeles remains uncertain, Golden State will undoubtedly be mentioned as a potential James suitor,\u201d he reported August 22.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m told that the Warriors have called the Lakers on multiple occasions over the past 18 months to see whether there is any trade pathway to pairing James with Stephen Curry, who roughly a year ago at this time was teaming with LeBron for the United States senior men\u2019s national team on its run to a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n James and Curry developed a close bond during the 2024 Paris Olympics, while showcasing great on-court chemistry that helped Team USA capture a gold medal. In a September 2024 interview<\/a>, Curry teased the possibility of teaming up with James again, triggering rumors of the two megastars linking up in a Warriors uniform.<\/p>\n Deflection Tactic by Warriors?<\/p>\n The Athletic\u2019s Jovan Buha believes the Warriors \u2014 who\u2019ve had a dormant offseason \u2014 have tactically put out reports<\/a> about James to drum up interest from the Lakers.<\/p>\n \u201cI would assume this came out from the Warriors side,\u201d Buha reported on his podcast.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026They\u2019ve had a rough summer. They have not been able to make any moves because of this Kuminga situation. It\u2019s been drama-filled, but also stagnant at the same time\u2026But it also benefits the Warriors to make their front office, their organization, look like they\u2019re trying to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n Clutch Points\u2019 Brett Siegel<\/a> reported that the Lakers have no interest in dealing James to the Warriors, even as \u201cThe King\u201d enters the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n \u201cSome clarity on the notion of the Warriors pursuing LeBron James: This has been the case since their hard push before the \u201924 deadline,\u201d Siegel reported on August 22. \u201cThey then checked in at the start of this offseason, and then again after the player option. Nothing has changed, and the Lakers aren\u2019t interested.\u201d<\/p>\n During the 2024 trade deadline, LeBron James and his camp similarly shot down the idea<\/a> of joining the Warriors, per ESPN\u2019s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors Veteran forward LeBron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-94249","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\/94249","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=94249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}