A bombshell report dropped last week, as Chris Haynes of ESPN brought word that LeBron James would be interested in a meeting with the Golden State Warriors when he hits free agency this summer. The caveat was that the Warriors would need to clear up the necessary cap space to offer James a max deal, but if they could, they could sit at the table with the best basketball player in the world and make a pitch about his future.
It was a stunning piece of information, because, well, it indicated that there’s a path for LeBron James to join the Golden State Warriors. Plenty of people, from Kevin Durant to Steve Kerr (kind of) to James himself, have commented on the validity of the report in various ways, and while the general consensus seems to be “this isn’t happening,” it’s fascinating to think of how the rest of the league would react to this union.
This also raises a question: Who on earth leaked that this is happening, and why should we trust them? If you ask Travis Schlenk, the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks and the former assistant general manager of the Warriors, odds are this comes from James’ camp.
Schlenk did a radio segment on CBS Atlanta where he spoke about the source of this rumor and how he thinks it was planted by those close to James, along with the fact that he doesn’t see this happening.
Transcription via Pro Basketball Talk:
“I would be really, really surprised if LeBron went to Golden State.
“The one thing I will say about Mr. James: He is the master at using the media to get whatever story he wants out there. He’s perfected the art of the social-media game. I think that those things were probably leaked by them, by Mr. James and his camp.
“I don’t see a universe where that happens.”
Skepticism about this marriage ever happening aside, accusing James and his camp of leaking the story to control the narrative around something — whether it be his upcoming free agency or his desire to get the Cavaliers to be hyper-active at the trade deadline — is a big deal. We may never know exactly how this story originated, but if this is how one general manager thinks it got out, it’s probably safe to assume that others in the league share this sentiment.
