Giannis Antetokounmpo being traded by Milwaukee to Miami<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe Lakers released a statement Tuesday thanking James for his eight seasons with the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,\u201d said Jeanie Buss, part of the Lakers\u2019 ownership group. \u201cWe will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers, including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances, and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESPN, citing James\u2019 longtime agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, first reported James\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n
What happens now<\/p>\n
James can begin talking officially to new clubs after 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, when the league\u2019s free agent period opens. He will not be able to sign with a new team until the league\u2019s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.<\/p>\n
The momentum toward Golden State seemed to pick up when longtime Warriors forward Draymond Green did not exercise his $27.6 million option for this coming season earlier this week in large part to allow his team flexibility to make other roster moves. It doesn\u2019t mean Green won\u2019t be back in Golden State \u2014 all indications are that he will \u2014 but it gives the team options.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I\u2019m always willing to work with the team on whatever is best, especially at this point in my career,\u201d Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, which was released Tuesday. \u201cSo my decision to opt out was for a few reasons. As you all know, I\u2019ve always taken the approach of working with the organization. I\u2019ve been in one place for 14 years. It\u2019s more of a family to me than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden State is a franchise James faced four times with Cleveland in the NBA Finals. He also has close relationships with Green, Stephen Curry and Warriors coach Steve Kerr; Curry was his teammate and Kerr was his coach for USA Basketball\u2019s run to the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.<\/p>\n
James spent eight seasons with the Lakers, the longest he spent in one stint with one NBA team and led them to the 2020 NBA championship. He became the NBA\u2019s all-time points leader while wearing a Lakers uniform and surpassed a slew of other records while in purple and gold.<\/p>\n
He spent the first seven years of his career in Cleveland, then left for four years in Miami where he won the first two of his four championships. That was followed by another four-year stint with the Cavaliers (so he had 11 years there total), and in 2018 he joined the Lakers.<\/p>\n
A career like none other<\/p>\n
James is the NBA\u2019s oldest active player; he turns 42 in December. He was the first player in league history to log 23 seasons; he\u2019ll add at least one more to that this season. He also became the first player in the league to have a son as a teammate, with Bronny James playing alongside him with the Lakers.<\/p>\n
The list of James\u2019 accolades to this point are beyond comparison.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was part of the NBA\u2019s 75th anniversary team. He\u2019s coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, and for his career, he\u2019s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, which means another decision awaits. A mere 16 years after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1927,1054,2356,852,13339,359,57030,3013,1055,2821,355,1063,24325,99,24324,2244,30534,32090],"class_list":["post-735585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ap-top-news","tag-bronny-james","tag-california","tag-cleveland","tag-draymond-green","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jeanie-buss","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-rich-paul","tag-sports","tag-sports-transactions","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-kerr","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}