Apr 22, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) leave a court after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 94-85 in game two of first round for the 2024 NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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The Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to trade for Luka Doncic reportedly left LeBron James feeling undervalued. Earlier this summer, the NBA legend decided to James exercise his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season.
The list of things the Los Angeles Lakers did that “did not go down easily” with LeBron James in recent months reportedly includes: not giving him significant notice about the trade, attempting to trade for Mark Williams after “years” of LeBron and Anthony Davis asking management to acquire a “true center,” not given the same notice as Luka Doncic about the Buss selling a majority stake in the team to Mark Walter, and not offering him a contract extension.
The Lakers traded for Luka Doncic on February 1, sending Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the 26-year-old Slovenian All-Star.
“We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what’s best for him,” Paul said in a statement to ESPN’s Shams Charania back in late June.
Before releasing that statement about “evaluating what’s best” for LeBron’s future, Paul reached out to Doncic’s team before the statement was released to tell them it “wasn’t a reflection on how James felt about their experience playing together.”
“James understood the Lakers taking advantage of an opportunity to pivot to the younger superstar. But from James’ perspective, sources said, nuance was sometimes lost during the transition. Doncic had never asked to be a Laker. James, for his part, had chosen L.A., coming in 2018 when the team had missed the playoffs five consecutive seasons, the worst run for the franchise since it moved from Minneapolis. Two years later, James had helped deliver a 17th championship.”
“The Lakers’ posture did not come as a surprise to James, sources said. But it also did not go down easily. But for the first time in his 23-year NBA career, a team had not begged or borrowed against its future to do everything it could to keep James beyond his current contract.” [via *ESPN ]*
The sportbooks consider the Los Angeles Lakers to be outside contenders to win the NBA title next season as they currently have betting odds of about +1600, which trails the Okalhoma City Thunder (heavy favorites at +260), Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic.