LeBron James was interested in joining Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and Duke Blue Devils basketball's Cooper Flagg on the Dallas Mavericks before opting into his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron James had eyes on the Dallas Mavericks – specifically, teaming with two players he won a championship with, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis, and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, Duke Blue Devils basketball’s Cooper Flagg – before he opted into the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger shared that intel while seemingly indicating the LeBron-Mavs possibility is dormant.
"In particular, the whispers about him having eyes for Dallas — a place where he could have teamed up with former teammates Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving and young phenom Cooper Flagg — before opting into his deal were hard to ignore,” Hollinger wrote.
“Obviously, James wasn’t willing to leave $52 million on the table to take a nontaxpayer MLE or something similar from the Mavericks or another team. A buyout seems similarly unlikely. Additionally, the tax aprons on both sides will make any in-season transaction with a contender-class team challenging.”
BasketNews’s Vukašin Nedeljković came up with a deal involving James that’d send Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, Caleb Martin, Naji Marshall, and Jaden Hardy to Los Angeles, while LeBron, Bronny, and Dalton Knecht would all end up in Dallas. Such a deal is on the road to working now that the Lakers have released Shake Milton and Jordan Goodwin. Rob Pelinka would have to continue maneuvering the cap to make it fully work.
If James has a thought about wanting out and prefers the Mavs, making a deal sooner rather than later would be ideal.
Signing as a free agent after a potential buyout doesn’t come with a guarantee that Bronny will remain his teammate. That’s an unlikely scenario since LeBron has not taken a pay cut since winning two titles with the Miami Heat at a Big Three discount.
James will likely stay in L.A., but it’ll forever be hard to ignore ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne and Brian Windhorst planting the seeds that the baton is having a tough time being passed back from LeBron to Luka Doncic.
Category: General Sports
