LeBron James has made it clear that he is not behind recent trade chatter involving one of the Los Angeles Lakers’ most popular players.
After his agent, Rich Paul, floated the idea of trading Austin Reaves during a podcast appearance, James publicly distanced himself from the suggestion and emphasized that his relationship with Reaves remains strong.
“I think you all know by now, Rich is his own man and what Rich says is not a direct reflection of me and how I feel,” James told ESPN on his way out of Crypto.com Arena. “And I hope people know that. I hope people know that and if they’re not sensible to know that, then I don’t know what to tell them.”
The comments came after Paul, proposed a hypothetical deal that would send Reaves to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Jaren Jackson Jr. on on the Game Over podcast.
Paul argued that such a move could give the Lakers a young frontcourt partner for Luka Doncic while also easing future financial pressure, as Reaves is eligible for a five-year, $241 million max extension this summer.
James went further to shut down any notion that Paul’s comments reflected his own thinking, especially when it came to Reaves personally.
“AR knows how I feel about him,” James told ESPN. “All you got to do is look at us on the bench. Me and AR talk every single day. So, AR knows how I feel about him and I hope AR — or his camp — don’t look at me and think this is words from me are coming through Rich.
“Rich has his perspective of what he sees, I have my perspective. I’m a grown man, he’s a grown man and I think people should realize that grown men can say whatever the f— they want to say and it shouldn’t reflect somebody else is saying it.”
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