The basketball world woke up to a Valentine's Day bombshell earlier this year when an ESPN report claimed the Warriors pursued a trade for LeBron James ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
The report noted that James' camp nixed the idea after Warriors governor Joe Lacob called his Lakers counterpart, Jeanie Buss, to discuss the moving pieces in the potential blockbuster trade.
James, Curry and Draymond Green would subsequently confirm the report, with Green claiming that he implored the Warriors to not part with Jonathan Kuminga.
Now, new details have emerged on the trade that could have shaken up the landscape of the NBA. According to insider Marc Stein, James' agent, Rich Paul, "adamantly opposed" the idea as he felt his client would have suffered backlash for switching teams for the fourth time in his career.
"Sources say Paul implored both teams to scrap the concept — despite some owner-to-owner dialogue between the Warriors' Joe Lacob and the Lakers' Jeanie Buss and Green's determination to lobby James to push for relocation to the Bay Area — largely because he wanted to insulate James from potential backlash over switching teams for the fourth time in his career," Stein wrote in his Sunday substack.
Stein added that Paul ensured the talks "never got that far" as he didn't want the idea to even be entertained, especially on the part of the Lakers.
Interestingly, James and Curry have again been earmarked as potential teammates after their impeccable chemistry helped Team USA win gold at the Paris Olympics. After the Games, James said he hopes to "play on the same NBA team" as Curry at some point before his retirement.
James' comments led to NBA analysts cooking up fantasy scenarios to pair up the two all-time greats on an NBA roster. While ESPN's Bobby Marks doesn't see a realistic path to James and Curry becoming teammates before 2026, Kendrick Perkins reckons the two players could pressure their teams into making something happen as early as the 2025 NBA trade deadline.
The buzz of James and Curry as teammates will likely intensify if the Lakers and Warriors struggle to make noise in the 2024-2025 campaign. Both teams are projected to miss the playoffs entering the season.
