НБА-гийн 2026 оны чөлөөт агент Леброн Жэймс аль багт элсэх нь сагсан бөмбөгийн ертөнцийн хамгийн том асуулт болоод байна.
Филадельфиа 76ерс-ийн гүйцэтгэх захирал Боб Майерс агентынхаа подкастад оролцох үеэрээ Леброн Жэймсийг өөрийн багт нэгдэх нь аварга болох хамгийн том боломж гэдгийг илэрхийлжээ. Хэдийгээр багийн удирдлагууд Леброн Жэймстэй шууд уулзах боломжгүй байгаа ч түүний агент Рич Полтой холбогдон саналаа дамжуулж байна. Рич Пол өөрийн подкастаараа дамжуулан сонирхолтой мэдээллүүдийг хуваалцаж байгаа нь лигийн хүрээнд багагүй яриа үүсгээд байна.
Одоогоор Кливлэнд Кавалиерс, Филадельфиа 76ерс, Майами Хит, Голдэн Стэйт Уорриорс, Миннесота Тимбервулвз, Денвер Наггетс болон Даллас Маверикс багууд Леброн Жэймсийг элсүүлэхээр өрсөлдөж байна. Тоглогчийн хувьд эдгээр багаас сонголтоо хийхдээ аварга авах боломж болон карьерийнх нь төгсгөлийн түүхэн ач холбогдлыг харгалзан үзэх юм. Ялангуяа Кливлэнд Кавалиерс багт эргэн ирэх нь түүний хувьд хамгийн онцгой хувилбар байж болохыг шинжээчид онцолж байна.
Леброн Жэймс энэ зун аль багийг сонгох нь тодорхойгүй байгаа бөгөөд санхүүгийн асуудал түүний шийдвэрт нөлөөлөхгүй гэдгийг агент нь мэдэгдсэн. Лэйкерс баг түүнийг багтаа үлдээх эрхээсээ татгалзсан тул тэрээр лигийн цалингийн цэсний хязгаарлалтын дагуу гэрээ байгуулах болно. Ирэх долоо хоног болон саруудад энэ асуудал хэрхэн шийдэгдэхийг сагсан бөмбөг сонирхогчид тэсэн ядан хүлээж байна.
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LAS VEGAS — It could have been a scene straight out of a yet-to-be-written dystopian basketball novel: Bob Myers, the Philadelphia 76ers’ chief executive, seated next to super agent Rich Paul on the set of Paul’s video podcast, stating the case for Philadelphia to land Paul’s client, the most attractive NBA free agent in the summer of 2026, LeBron James.
“If (LeBron) was here, I’d say, ‘I honestly believe this is your best chance to win,’” Myers said during the latest episode of Paul’s “Game Over” podcast with Max Kellerman.
It was the latest, strangest turn in another league-business-stopping, edge-cutting free agency for James. Executives like Myers in Philadelphia, Koby Altman in Cleveland, Mike Dunleavy Jr. in Golden State and Pat Riley in Miami aren’t getting meetings with James. Not this time. They can talk to Paul, who relays the information to James, who at some point between now and September will decide which team he will join for his 24th NBA season.
In the meantime, Paul is breaking some serious news with that podcast of his. As you may have heard on the same pod last week, he busted out a whiteboard with the top potential destinations for James and laid out, in great detail, why his client — the league’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time champion and four-time NBA MVP — was considering each team.
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Myers’ guest appearance — and publicly stated case for James to pick the Sixers — was so strange, audacious or entertaining (or all three) because these kinds of pitches are never made on platforms like this. They are saved for private boardrooms or Zoom calls, and almost always made directly to the player, with the agent sitting next to him.
“Awkward,” said one executive of a potential James suitor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about Paul’s show.
“The podcast is a brilliant idea by them because it regains a narrative for them they may have lost,” said another league source who also spokeon the condition of anonymity to speak freely about Paul’s show.
Is Paul setting up a “Hunger Games”-style competition for James’ services, with executives from each potential suitor joining him on set over a period of six weeks, with the winner to be announced by Paul and James on the same show some time before the start of fall training camp?
The answer is no, according to multiple league sources with direct knowledge of James’ free agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private scheduling and broadcast plans. Myers’ appearance on the show was planned before James’ free agency began.
But it’d be on brand for James’ free agency history if that were the plan.
This will be the fourth time in James’ storied career that he has switched teams. In each of his first three transfers, he and his management team owned the narrative and the news, making decisions on James’ timeline and announcing them on his terms.
The first, when he took his talents from Cleveland to South Beach in 2010, was unveiled in an ESPN TV special after weeks of in-person meetings with team executives. The second, when he returned to the Cavaliers in 2014, was revealed in an online open letter dictated by James to Sports Illustrated, after a private, face-to-face clearing of the air between James and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert. (Veteran NBA reporter Chris Sheridan predicted on his own website that James had decided to leave Miami for Cleveland a few days before the SI letter dropped.)
The third, when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, was announced in a news release from Paul’s Klutch Sports Group agency after then-Lakers president Magic Johnson met with James at LeBron’s Los Angeles home.
League executives who spoke with The Athletic on Thursday in Las Vegas at the official start of the NBA 2026 Summer League said there was only one team executive believed to have had direct contact with James during this free agency: Brandon Weems, a childhood friend to LeBron who works in Cleveland’s front office and appeared in photographs posted to social media of James and his friends partying in Akron, Ohio over the July 4 holiday.
“I know I haven’t talked to him,” one general manager of a potential James suitor said.
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Sources with knowledge of James’ free agency declined to say how LeBron would announce his decision this time or disclose whether a plan for the announcement was even set. But if a legacy media company unaffiliated with James or Paul breaks the news, it would be a first.
Meanwhile, the teams Paul had said were contenders on his podcast — the Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks — were all unaware of James’ intentions as of Thursday and prepared to remain in the dark for days to come.
“We really don’t know, we just know what we read,” one executive of a potential James’ suitor said. “My friends text me and ask what he’s going to do, and I don’t have to lie to them.”
Because the Lakers renounced their rights to James as a free agent, his next contract will be limited by the league’s salary cap. There is no longer a sign-and-trade scenario available with the Lakers. None of the finalists cited by Paul have cap space, so James can either earn the nontaxpayer midlevel exception to the salary cap (about $16 million), the taxpayer midlevel exception (about $6 million) or the veteran’s minimum (about $4 million for a player with James’ years of service).
Paul said money would not be a factor in James’ decision, as he is worth more than $1 billion according to Forbes Magazine. For someone of his wealth, the difference in salaries available to him is negligible.
If he didn’t retire — which was on the table after his 23rd season ended in a second-round sweep of the Lakers by the Oklahoma City Thunder —NBA executives widely expected James to return to L.A. for a significantly higher salary than is currently available to him. Those opinions began to change when news broke on June 29 that the Warriors’ Draymond Green, a friend of James who is also represented by Paul, declined his $27 million option to return to Golden State. The prevailing thought is that he did so to give the Warriors the flexibility to sign James and perhaps trade for Anthony Davis.
The following day, Paul said he informed the Lakers on James’ behalf that he would not return to them, a stunning announcement that set the league ablaze with anticipation as to where James might finish his career.
And then on July 1, the first full day of free agency, the Lakers executed four moves and spent the entirety of the $52 million in cap space taken up by James’ salary last season. They agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with restricted free agent center Walker Kessler (four years, $130 million) and to new contracts with free agents Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton.
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The quick response by the Lakers in free agency, just mere hours after the LeBron bombshell dropped, led some league sources to question how much the Lakers, who are now firmly entrenched in the Luka Dončić era, were prepared to offer James to return.
By far the biggest move made by a potential James destination since June 30 was the Sixers’ trade of Paul George and two first-round picks to the Boston Celtics for Jaylen Brown. The Cavaliers made a massive splash Tuesday by coming to an agreement on a four-year, $273 million extension with Donovan Mitchell, which guarantees stability in Cleveland for the length of any contract James might sign. James Harden, a Cavs free agent, is waiting to sign a multiyear deal with Cleveland until the team no longer needs the flexibility to make a move like signing James. Green also continues waiting to re-sign until the Warriors no longer need any room to maneuver.
How long will this massive, multi-team holding pattern continue? Keep an eye on Paul’s podcast for more developments.
