Earlier this year, LeBron James went out of his way to talk about returning to the Cavaliers, state a plan to play for whatever NBA team had his son Bronny and praise Thunder general manager Sam Presti.
Eventually, LeBron quieted the controversy he created by saying he wants to finish his career with the Lakers.
But he’s right back to discussing playing on other teams.
A promo for “The Shop” showed LeBron saying, of the teams left in the playoffs, he’d want to play for the Warriors. The full episode shows he named a second team – the Heat.
LeBron:
LeBron paid lip service to the Lakers, but he knows what he’s doing. This once again gets his name in headlines during a postseason he missed. LeBron’s manager, Maverick Carter, even teed up LeBron with the question. Whoever cut the promo video for “The Shop” – produced by LeBron’s company – did an excellent job of ensuring this would turn into two stories, one on LeBron wanting to play for the Warriors then another on LeBron also wanting to play for the Heat.
This quote also implicitly applies pressure to the Lakers.
In hindsight, LeBron left breadcrumbs about leaving the Cavs for the Heat, leaving the Heat to return to the Cavs and leaving Cavs the second time.
Maybe he’s again planting the seeds about changing teams. There has already been talk about him joining the Warriors (especially to play with Stephen Curry) or re-joining the Heat.
This is all probably nothing.
But for the Lakers, do they really want to test his commitment? It’s probably safer just to bend to whatever LeBron wants.
That’s the message coming through, at least.