LeBron James hints his Lakers future is up in the air.
Prior to the Lakers’ matchup against the Knicks in New York, LeBron James discussed the uncertainty in his future.
With the Lakers struggling to string together wins on the court we’re seeing plenty of drama off of it. Over the past week, we’ve had NBA trade rumors, Christian Wood possibly sub tweeting Darvin Ham and LeCryptic James.
With the team floundering in mediocrity at 25-25 right in the middle of a six-game road trip there was even buzz surrounding the Lakers potentially trading James. So much so that his agent went on the record regarding the topic.
With James missing the Lakers matchup versus the Boston Celtics, he hasn’t talked to the media since his cryptic tweet or addressed recent rumors, so obviously, that was the topic of discussion during shootaround on Saturday.
The always calculated James gave us very little on these topics, offering a simple “no” when asked if he wanted to clarify what the hourglass emoji meant.
He gave the same answer when asked what he was going to do regarding his player option for next year.
So is this a whole lot of nothing or something deeper? As with many of life’s questions, the answer is nuanced.
James is unlikely to ever tell us what he’s going to do. He’s never gone on record prior to his departure from his former teams so why would he cause such drama now?
However, It’s no coincidence James is causing a stir with these passive-aggressive comments and tweets as we enter the final week of the trade deadline.
Having that player option and saying he doesn’t know what he will do does put pressure on the Lakers organization to make a trade to improve this team.
James is still an NBA All-Star starter, playing at an elite level and the Lakers are a ninth seed. That’s simply not good enough. James has all the justification to push for better and demand more from whatever team he is a part of to help him win his fifth ring.
If the Lakers want him to be that team, they’ll need to either make an upgrade at the guard position or hope head coach Darvin Ham can tweak lineups and go on a run similar to last year’s team.
If not, this summer, the Lakers could be looking drastically different and a new era may be among us in Los Angeles.
