Winning the Olympic Games together sparked the desire to see LeBron James and Steph Curry on the same NBA team.
This scenario, LeBron James to Golden States Warriors almost became a reality last February, but James’ agent, Rich Paul, strongly advised against it. He discouraged LeBron from switching teams and joining the Golden State Warriors, effectively shutting down negotiations between the two franchises’ owners before they could progress.
CURRY AND LEBRON TOGETHER
The gold medal at Paris 2024 will be remembered in history for bringing together two of the most significant basketball players of the last 15 years, LeBron James and Steph Curry, on the same team.
Along with Kevin Durant, they led Team USA to its fifth consecutive Olympic gold, in what might be the only time James and Curry have ever been teammates, despite facing each other 52 times in their careers (23 in the regular season, 28 in the playoffs, and once in the play-in tournament). Seeing them wear the same NBA jersey at this point in their careers seems unlikely, even though the idea was recently consideredโnot by the players themselves, but by their team owners.
LEBRON WAS ONE STEP AWAY FROM THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
During the last trade deadline in February, Joe Lacob (owner of the Golden State Warriors) and Jeanie Buss (owner of the Los Angeles Lakers) discussed a possible trade involving LeBron James. The conversation was serious enough to be brought to James and his agent, Rich Paul.
However, according to journalist Marc Stein, it was Paul who stopped the discussions. “Multiple league sources say that the talks between the teams never went too far, largely because James’ agent, Rich Paul, strongly opposed the idea of James moving from Southern California to Northern California,” Stein wrote.
“Sources say Paul urged both teams to abandon the ideaโdespite some discussions between Joe Lacob and Jeanie Buss and Draymond Green’s determination to push James to join the Bay Areaโbecause he wanted to protect James from potential backlash for changing teams for the fourth time in his career.”
In other words, it was about protecting LeBron’s “legacy,” even though his place in basketball history is already beyond doubt. It would have been fascinating, but for now, the dream of seeing James and Curry together on an NBA court remains just thatโa dream.
