The Biggest Loser

Less than a week ago, folks like me were absolutely convinced that LeBron James would be signing with the Golden State Warriors in free agency.

Given how often James stressed the importance of family and wanting to be present for his daughter in his ways he couldn’t be for his two older sons, shooting up Interstate-5 to play his twilight years in Golden State - where he’d only be an hour-long flight away from his wife and kids – seemed like a layup.

Draymond Green had already opted out of his contract to presumably open up more cap space for The King and was openly recruiting him to The Bay on his podcast, both ESPN and Yahoo Sports had reported that the Warriors were angling to trade for Anthony Davis to make their roster more appealing, and even Steph Curry had gone on Good Morning America to state his case why he believed Golden State made the most sense for James.

The stars had finally aligned… until they didn’t.

Instead, LeBron decided that he’d rather take his talents 2,700 miles across the country to finish out his NBA career playing for the Philadelphia 76ers on a veteran’s minimum contract.

Golden State could’ve theoretically offered more money than Philly, and they definitely offered a closer proximity to home. What they couldn’t offer, however, was the chance to win an NBA championship. And, ultimately, that proved to be the deciding factor. LeBron said as much in a lengthy post on X: “This is my last decision. I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship.”

And yet, as much as it hurts to lose out on LeBron, it’s nothing compared to what might come next… a potential trade demand from Steph.

Less than a year ago, Curry told The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami how badly he wanted to still being playing competitive basketball during his twilight years. “You don’t want to be in a situation the Lakers were in those last three years (with Kobe Bryant). I know he came off the Achilles injury, but they were a lottery team, and it was more just how many points can Kobe score down the stretch of his career. I don’t want to be in the scenario.” Unfortunately, Kawakami said on his podcast this past weekend that Warriors owner Joe Lacob, after missing out on LeBron and AD, is now more focused on ‘building the next team after Steph Curry’ than he is on mortgaging the future in hopes of maybe making another deep playoff run with the 38-year-old Curry. And who could blame him?

Golden State has been a play-in team in four of the last six seasons and has missed the playoffs outright in two of the last three. As great as Steph is, recent history suggests that he’s no longer great enough to be the best player on a championship team.

So, given that Curry and the Golden State front office seem to be at odds over the direction of the franchise, would it really come as much of a shock if The Greatest Shooter of All-Time decides to force his way out of town to chase a fifth championship? And if he does, is there any doubt then that the Warriors are clearly the biggest losers of the LeBron James Sweepstakes? 

Only time will tell.