{"id":429262,"date":"2026-01-24T01:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429262\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:51:08","slug":"brian-windhorst-defends-lebron-james-after-recent-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429262\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Windhorst defends LeBron James after recent report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tumultuous relationship between the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and LeBron James has become one of the NBA’s top stories.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Baxter Holmes detailed<\/a> the rocky relationship between James and former Lakers owner Jeanie Buss earlier this week. Holmes reported Buss considered trading James in 2022 after their relationship went south.<\/p>\n

ESPN NBA analyst Brian Windhorst defended James on Friday, stating that the Lakers knew what they were getting into when they signed him in 2018.<\/p>\n

“Part of dealing with LeBron is dealing with headaches,” Windhorst said. “Sometimes he is going to upset you. But whatever he does to upset you, he makes up for it 10 times.”<\/p>\n

More: NBA insider says relationship between Lakers, LeBron is ending<\/a><\/p>\n

Windhorst has a unique relationship with James, as he covered LeBron’s high school basketball career in Akron, Ohio. He became an NBA reporter in 2003 when James was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> and later followed him to the Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Buss was allegedly uncomfortable with James’ prominent role within the franchise, specifically after the Anthony Davis trade in 2019. Windhorst said the Lakers shouldn’t be surprised when James makes controversial public comments or exerts his control.<\/p>\n

“That was the case in Cleveland, Miami and now LA,” he said. “Has Jeanie been upset with LeBron at times? Absolutely. Would she give anything back about the last eight years? Absolutely not.”<\/p>\n

James was quiet about his future in LA on Thursday. He said he was “good” with remaining a Laker for the rest of the season, but did not provide any other details. He is set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tumultuous relationship between the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James has become one of the NBA’s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-429262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}