LeBron James has until the end of this week to decide what he’s doing with his player option with the Lakers, and if he chooses not to pick it up, he’ll become a free agent on Sunday evening when the NBA’s moratorium period opens at 6 p.m. ET on June 30.
While most expect LeBron to stay in Los Angeles, there are plenty of teams that would love to add the future Hall of Famer and would like the chance to pitch him on why a change of scenery might be his best bet for another championship run. The Sixers and Suns are known to have interest in James, but other teams would surely try to get a meeting as well. While the Chicago Bulls don’t really have a great case to make as a potential title contender, that hasn’t stopped Chicago native and Bulls fan Lil Durk from doing his best to recruit LeBron (and Bronny) to the Bulls.
Durk posted a screenshot of a message he sent James to his IG story on Tuesday recruiting him to Chicago, offering to pay half of LeBron’s salary himself if he has to.
I’m not sure Lil Durk’s accountant would agree with this offer, as James is eligible to sign a deal that would pay him more than $50 million annually, which would put Durk on the hook for a tidy $25+ million per year. That said, you have to respect the effort here to do whatever you can to help your favorite team. The Bulls can’t acquire James without a pretty complicated sign-and-trade, but honestly, I think plenty of Bulls fans would feel better about Lil Durk handling Chicago’s roster moves than Arturas Karnisovas at this point — especially after the Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey trade.