LeBron James once again appears to be trying to exert pressure on the Los Angeles Lakers to make some changes prior to next Thursday’s trade deadline. For now, however, the Lakers do not seem likely to bow to that pressure.
James has raised eyebrows with some of his recent activity, including a cryptic post featuring an hourglass emoji on X and a pointed “no” when asked if he has made a decision on his player option for next season. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst admitted that these are standard methods James uses to put some pressure on the front office, but said that for now, the organization is not reacting to them at all.
“The Lakers to this point, from what I am told by sources, have not reacted to LeBron’s maneuvers, including wearing the Knicks towel last night, and they have kind of held firm in their talks,” Windhorst said on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Sunday, via Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report. “The issue with the Lakers is they have only a couple of draft assets left, and they just want to hold onto them.”
James has never been shy about expressing his opinions about whether his team needs to improve to contend for a championship. He sparked retirement rumors at the end of last season in what many saw as a pressure tactic. He has also been very blunt in his comments about some of the Lakers’ deficiencies this season. Realistically, however, the Lakers are limited in what they can do, even though they have been linked to some big names.
James himself came up as a subject of trade rumors recently, but that was shot down quite quickly.
