Former Cleveland general manager David Griffin has spent a lot of his post-Cavs career sharing insights on the inner working of LeBron James’ mind, and his most recent take is particularly juicy.
Speaking to Zach Gelb on CBS Sports Radio on Sunday, Griffin claimed the 76ers had the edge in signing LeBron.
“I do think it is significant…that (James’ agent) Rich Paul is the representative for Ben Simmons as well,” Griffin said. “So he’s going to know the organisation very well, and I think that will certainly give them a leg up.”
“Because I know Brett Brown is somebody that you’re going to look at when you’re LeBron, and you’re going to look at Pop, you’re going to look at the coach in LA … all the teams he’s went to, coaching is going to matter. And I think because Ben has intimate knowledge of Coach Brown, that will probably help.”
Griffin made it clear he did not have inside knowledge on the situation, and that was this was his educated guess.
“I don’t know what boxes he would be checking,” he said.” I think staying in the East probably gives him the best chance to win a championship if he was going to leave Cleveland. Maybe staying in Cleveland gives him the best chance to get there, I don’t know.”
Griffin was later asked if he would be interested in taking over Bryan Colangelo’s job, should he lose it.
This is all getting highly speculative (welcome to the free agency, baby), but you’d have to think Griffin stepping in for Colangelo would further strengthen Philly’s pitch for James, considering the two had a great relationship in Cleveland.
But Griffin sidestepped the question and said his focus was on his current media gigs.
You can listen to the full interview here.