LeBron James is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and no one seems to remember.
All the free agency talk is about Kevin Durant-whom everyone declares as the biggest name in free agency-that should be an affront to the King but no one thinks LeBron will leave Cleveland. Until now.
More and more sportswriters are being quoted on their podcasts and other media speculating that LeBron James could leave his home city after he fulfills his promise to bring a title to his city after decades of falling short on all their professional sports teams.
The bold statement from esteemed sportswriter Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical who compared a championship to a "golden ticket" that will allow LeBron to become an "adventurist" and do whatever he wants, wherever he wants in the league.
Wojnarowski actually wrote that the other NBA teams are not discounting the possibility, and they are even "restless" about it.
"One more victory, one more magnificent night at Oracle Arena, and James will get to run off with his buddies again somewhere warm," Wojnarowski said. "Miami. Los Angeles. Wherever. There's a restlessness about James that craves the next big move, the next power play. Franchises are on watch again, believing nothing's forever in Northeast Ohio. Sooner or later, there's a belief that James comes into play again, a line of thinking that his inner circle has done nothing to dissuade. As for James himself, well, he has gone so far as to publicly describe an end-of-career scenario that doesn't include Cleveland."
Barely a month ago, Stephen A. Smith claimed that "folks in Miami" have been talking about LeBron James in Miami again. However, there is another city that was mentioned-a city he actually bought a huge house in-Los Angeles.
As early as March, there was already some buzz about this, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN mentioned in the Katie Nolan "Garbage Time" podcast (h/t Silver Screen and Roll) affirming the possibility of LeBron James assembling his squad in LA.
"Yeah. I do. I don't think it'll be this summer, but... LeBron says he wants to play with Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade. I don't think that's going to happen in Cleveland. I would say that would happen on one of those two teams in Los Angeles... But I think it will not be happening anytime soon," McMenamin said.
This is purely speculation, even wild imagination but Wojnarowski and McMenamin are real sportswriters (not giving Stephen A. Smith the benefit of the doubt) but the Lakers have the most cap space in the NBA. LeBron can handpick teammates from the free agents of this summer--even Durant, technically, or even trade for them.
It's an intriguing narrative, unlikely but not impossible.