The Los Angeles Lakers apparently considered trading LeBron James this season.
According to a wild report from Bleacher Report on Thursday, James’ agent Rich Paul upset Lakers owner Jeanie Buss while the team contemplated trading for Anthony Davis, and that put James getting shipped out of town on the table. For those who might not know, the trade ultimately failed in spectacular fashion. (RELATED: LeBron
Bleacher Report wrote the following:
When rumors engulfed the team at the February trade deadline that it was willing to trade anyone other than James to acquire All-Star forward Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans, James’ agent, Rich Paul, was widely accused of spreading those rumors because Davis is also one of his clients. Paul denied to B/R that he leaked the Lakers’ interest in Davis, but Buss suspected otherwise and was furious. The idea of terminating the franchise’s relationship with Paul by moving James at least crossed Buss’ mind, the team source said, and Paul was made aware of that. That prompted Paul to reach out to Buss to clear the air, and whatever ill will existed supposedly dissipated. At the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference a few weeks later, Buss blamed the media for making the rumors public.
This is an absolutely insane report. Imagine how it would have rocked the sports world if LeBron James, the best player on the planet, got traded partway through his first season with the team.
Clearly, the Anthony Davis drama pissed off a lot of people in the organization. Most importantly, the drama surrounding the situation appears to have upset Buss, who is the last person on the planet you want upset with you if you’re employed by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Shockingly, the same BR report claimed James doesn’t have a no-trade clause. How the hell did his agent let that happen? That is honestly shocking to me. He has a 15 percent trade kicker, which will increase his contract’s value in a trade. However, that’s not the same as a no-trade clause.
This might explain James’ behavior recently. He’s really appeared to not care a single bit lately. He walked off the court before a game was over, bounced a ball into a camera crew’s light and has played some extremely lazy defense. I guess I might not be overly enthusiastic if I knew the head of the team considered trading me. (RELATED: LeBron James
What a wild situation all the way around. The Lakers might be short on wins this season, but they’re certainly not short on drama.