Dwyane Wade on LeBron James Lakers speculation: ‘Leave my teammate alone’
The thought of LeBron James in a Lakers uniform has sent the internet into a frenzy over the past 24 hours. On Thursday, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported that a number of NBA executives believe the Lakers have positioned themselves to make a run at LeBron in 2014 should Kobe Bryant retire. To make matters even more interesting, Lakers owner Jim Buss told the Orange County Register that the team has intentionally structured itself so it has a significant amount of cap space in 2014, although never mentioning King James as a specific target.
As you might expect, Dwyane Wade is one of a number of people who don’t want to hear anything about LeBron going to the Lakers.
“They need to leave my teammate alone with that, and go mess with somebody else,” Wade told the Palm Beach Post after Miami’s preseason win over the Pistons. “He’s gonna be here. We’re straight.”
For his part, LeBron simply said that he understands how rumors can be and that he is worried about nothing besides defending Miami’s title. While the concept is certainly intriguing, going to L.A. would make very little sense for LeBron. The idea is for him to carve out his own legacy and win multiple championships, not follow in the footsteps of arguably the greatest Laker of all time. Unless things go poorly in Miami over the next two seasons, I can’t imagine it would be in LeBron’s best interest to head to L.A., return to Cleveland or go anywhere else. He needs to stay in South Beach and win not one, not two, not three — yeah, that whole thing.
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Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE
