I think LeBron James wants to win more championships. Unfortunately, despite his incredible skill, athleticism, and talent at the age of 41, he’s not exactly in the very top tier of NBA players anymore. He’s All-NBA, but he’s not in conversations for best player in the league anymore.
And that’s okay. All it means is that LeBron is more dependent on his teammates than he used to be. He probably wants good ones. And he probably wants them now. A good way to put some pressure on the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office to make win-now moves is to let them know “Hey, I can go if I want to. You still need to impress me.”
It seemed like this bit of leverage was not going to be used, but Anthony Irwin came on Jovan Buha’s podcast:
Irwin said the following: “The majority of the noise is that he’s going to opt in, but in the back of my mind, I do think there is a real possibility here that he opts out.” Irwin goes on to state he might instead go for another 1-and-1 deal (a two-year contract where the second year is the player option). It’s almost maybe kinda possible that LeBron does take a small haircut on salary if the Lakers need it.
And I mean small.
All of this still sounds like generally good news for the Lakers
Irwin didn’t seem convinced of an idea that LeBron is looking to play games of any sort, he is just stating LeBron, because he is a legend and is smart with the contracts he signs, has leverage here. If the team and LeBron are aligned, there’s not a problem in sight.
But also, LeBron could hold the team hostage
Wouldn’t that be fun? To watch LeBron make the Lakers trade all their future assets and young players to build a roster for this year and this year only? And then maybe once they’re done, LeBron signs with a different team anyway? The Pistons could use him. I bet he signs with the Pistons.