LeBron James sitting courtside for Cavs-Boston Game 4 in Cleveland sent tongues wagging and an NBA insider has shed light on why he did it.
There are a whole heap of questions surrounding the league’s all-time greatest scorer that include, but are not limited to:
- Will he stay at the Lakers next season?
- Will LeBron play with Bronny?
- Will he opt out of his contract and become a free agent this summer?
Everything James does at this point is no doubt very calculated, so ESPN‘s Brian Windhorst believes him showing up in Cleveland was no different.
“The first thing that came into my mind when this happened was 10 years ago, when LeBron came back to Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ jersey retirement while he was a member of the Miami Heat,” Windhorst said on Tuesday’s First Take. “[He] took a night off while in Chicago, flew over for it, and he signed with the Cavs a few months later. Now, let me just say this, I have been told, the reason why LeBron was in Cleveland was because he and (his wife) Savannah were there for Mother’s Day…”
James’ agent Rich Paul reportedly informed the Lakers that LeBron would be in attendance on Sunday, so they weren’t caught off guard.
But Windhorst thinks the “maneuver” would be about LeBron putting pressure on the Lakers and creating the best offseason deal for himself, as well as his son Bronny in the draft.
“On draft night, [the Lakers] can trade three first-round picks.,” Windhorst said. “At the trade deadline, as everybody knows, they did nothing and LeBron wasn’t happy about it. So this little maneuver put a little bit of doubt, I think, mostly a bit of a thing for the Lakers. Just to remind the Lakers, ‘By the way, just so you know, I’m still out here.’
“And then you have the Bronny factor. Now, Rich Paul has come out and said on the record that LeBron and Bronny do not have to be tied together… Having said that, we see Bronny trending more towards, I think, getting drafted. There’s various teams that have draft picks in the first round and the second round, including the Cavs, including the Lakers, and I do think that’s a situation worth watching. I don’t think anybody should overreact to this, but certainly, LeBron knew he was going to create a stir, and it did on my phone and elsewhere in the league it did last night.”