It’s become an obvious figment of the imagination of NBA fans in general, not just those who happen to pull for the Golden State Warriors. There is a certain symmetry, a neatness, to the possibility of the biggest star in the NBA in this century joining up with arguably the second-biggest star the league has seen this century and finishing up their careers together, after having battled in four NBA Finals a full decade ago.
LeBron James leaving the Lakers this summer and teaming up with Stephen Curry in the Bay Area, writing their final chapters as teammates with the Warriors. It’s a nice tale. But let’s be honest–it’s not much more than that.
That’s the feeling around the NBA, where there’s no doubt a sense that the Lakers are preparing to lose James this summer, moving forward to rebuild the roster around Luka Doncic. But James heading north up the Pacific Coast Highway (or Interstate 5 if he’s in a hurry) remains more a fairytale than a possibility.
LeBron James to the Warriors? Cool Story
The three most likely outcomes for James remain a return to the Lakers, a sudden and unceremonious retirement or a trek back to where it all began with the Cleveland Cavaliers. James landing with the Warriors or the Knicks can’t be ruled out as possibilities, but they’re very, very long shots.
“I think it’s a great story, it would be cool right?” one Western Conference executive said. “But then you get into the reality of it and, how does that work? They could probably take on LeBron on the floor, you have a coach like Steve Kerr, you have Steph there, you assume they have Draymond (Green). That’s all fine. It’s a nice ending for him, nice for the league, fairy-tale stuff.
“But is LeBron going to go play in Northern California for $5 million a year? Because they have no cap space, they’re giving him a cap exception and that’s it. And I think LeBron and Steph have a lot of respect for each other, and LeBron and Draymond are good friends, but he is getting $50 million this year. I don’t think that the respect and friendship thing, that doesn’t count for $50 million.”
Likely Cavaliers or Bust
If James is going to give up his max-level salary, then, he’s not likely to do it just to team up with Curry and hang out with Green on the Warriors. He’d probably only do that to go back to Cleveland, the place that drafted him originally, just down the road from his hometown in Akron.
The Cavaliers are in luxury-tax hell themselves, and could only offer James a minor contract to play in 2026-27.
That’s if he would do it at all, instead of hitting retirement. It would help, too, that James could join a team with championship aspirations in Cleveland–if he teams up with Curry in Golden State, the Warriors would be good, but not a contender.
“Playing an NBA season is difficult, it is a grind, you need a lot of motivation, especially to do it at the level LeBron does it,” the exec said. “He’d have motivation in Cleveland. I am not sure he’d have that anywhere else.”
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