For a few weeks after Season 23 ended, LeBron James was \u201c80 percent sure\u201d he would return to the Los Angeles Lakers, he told longtime friend and sports agent Rich Paul. \u2028Obviously that didn\u2019t hold, and now the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer is again the league\u2019s most attractive and tantalizing free agent.<\/p>\n
Speaking on his \u201cGame Over\u201d podcast with Max Kellerman, Paul said that when James was sure he wanted to continue playing but not with the Lakers, he challenged his most famous client with one question: What did he want most as he entered\u00a0his 24th NBA season?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer was happiness,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n
During the episode, Paul discussed several potential destinations for James on a whiteboard. The Philadelphia 76ers were prominently listed, as were the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and a few other teams on the outer edges.<\/p>\n
The next stop for LeBron should be…<\/p>\n
David Aldridge, Joe Vardon and more<\/p>\n
In a twist, Paul said if the Knicks hadn\u2019t won the title, \u201cthere would be no board. He\u2019d be going to the Knicks.\u201d It\u2019s unlikely James will sign with them, but Paul said the only thing that would need to happen is for Jalen Brunson to call.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have to pick up the phone and say it\u2019s no issue with me with you joining,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n
Paul also pointed to James\u2019 hometown of Cleveland as a serious contender, citing familiarity with the organization, Gilbert family and team president Koby Altman, as well as long-standing relationships with people within the organization, such as assistant general manager Brandon Weems.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrandon Weems, who I call basically like LeBron\u2019s brother, is a big feather in the Cavs\u2019 cap,\u201d the sports agent said.<\/p>\n
From a roster perspective, while Paul said it\u2019s \u201cnothing against James Harden,\u201d James would have loved to play with the Clippers\u2019 Darius Garland, whose game he admires, similar to that of another player, the Sixers\u2019 Tyrese Maxey.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeBron loves Maxey,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n
He added that the Sixers\u2019 recent acquisition of Jaylen Brown makes them more attractive as a potential destination. James is also familiar with Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey, whom he played high school basketball against, and Jameer Nelson, who is a new addition to Philadelphia\u2019s front office. They also discussed how LeBron could help develop standout rookie VJ Edgecombe.<\/p>\n
The Heat also remains in play due to James\u2019 previous tenure with the team and familiarity with the organization. Another rarely discussed option would be the Timberwolves. Paul cited the ownership group, the possibility of playing with Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball and the defensive support of Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels.<\/p>\n
Paul said that playing in Golden State with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, and the way the Lacob family has built a winning organization, stood out, too.<\/p>\n
Throughout the podcast, Paul also said the Nuggets, Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs were part of broader league-wide discussions. With the Dallas Mavericks, Paul said many factors outside of basketball were part of the potential equation, in addition to roster evaluation.<\/p>\n
Despite Paul\u2019s comments on the podcast, no final decision had been made regarding James\u2019 next team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a few weeks after Season 23 ended, LeBron James was \u201c80 percent sure\u201d he would return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,2357,8231,8224,14102,459,2901,1528,82],"class_list":["post-778051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami-heat","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778051","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=778051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}