LeBron James’ free agency would not be much of an event had the New York Knicks not won an NBA title.
James’ longtime agent Rich Paul showed off a full whiteboard of James’ potential landing spots on the latest episode of his “Game Over” podcast, with the Knicks being one of them. Paul said, however, that if the Knicks had not won a championship, James would almost certainly be joining them.
“If the Knicks hadn’t won, there would be no board. He’d be going to the Knicks,” Paul said.
Rich Paul on LeBron James to the Knicks 😳
— Heat Central (@TheHeatCentral) July 3, 2026
“If the Knicks hadn’t won, there would be no board. He’d be going to the Knicks…. Jalen Brunson would literally have to pick up the phone and say ‘hey man, there’s no issue with me.’ They (Knicks) have checked in.”
(Via Game Over) https://t.co/iFyuJgEBt8 pic.twitter.com/hpy1PnVU1Q
Paul said the big reason that such an outcome is less likely now is not that James does not want to join a team that has already won, but simply that he and his camp were wary of disrupting what the Knicks have built already.
James and the Knicks have always been floated as a potential marriage. There were even claims that he had originally preferred the Knicks to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, but his family objected.
Now, the Knicks appear to be on the fringes of the LeBron sweepstakes, if they are interested at all. In light of the team’s financial restrictions, that is not a huge surprise.
