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Rich Paul reportedly had a significant impact in LeBron James not heading to the Golden State Warriors at the 2024 NBA trade deadline.
NBA Insider Marc Stein reported that Paul, James' agent, was "adamantly opposed" to James leaving the Los Angeles Lakers for Golden State and did not want James to switch teams for a fourth time.
"Yet league sources say that the reported talks between the teams at the time never got that far in large part because James' agent Rich Paul was adamantly opposed to the idea of James swapping Southern California for Northern California," Stein wrote. "Sources say Paul implored both teams to scrap the concept — despite some owner-to-owner dialogue between the Warriors' Joe Lacob and the Lakers' Jeanie Buss and Green's determination to lobby James to push for relocation to the Bay Area — largely because he wanted to insulate James from potential backlash over switching teams for the fourth time in his career."
James in a Warriors uniform would be a strange sight.
He faced the Warriors four times in the NBA Finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning one title behind a historic comeback. He has since played within the Warriors division as a member of the Lakers and faced the team in the postseason in 2022-23.
His play alongside Warriors guard Steph Curry on the U.S. Olympic team at the 2024 Summer Olympics showed how fun the duo could have been to root for, but Paul's concern about changing teams does have some logic. He began his career with the Cavaliers, left for the Miami Heat, returned to Cleveland and then finally departed for the Lakers.
Another team change, especially at 39 years old, would rehash some old narratives about it hurting his legacy.
James ultimately chose to re-sign with the Lakers in the offseason and is now set to play alongside his son, Bronny, in 2024-25. Without Paul's push, this all could have gone down a different path.
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