You can safely cross one team off LeBron James’ list for this summer.
The Los Angeles Lakers star forward James is “not interested” in playing for the Golden State Warriors next season, Ashish Mathur of Lakers Daily reported on Monday. Mathur notes that the Warriors were anticipated to pursue James in the summer and that Steph Curry and Draymond Green were even expected to help recruit him.
Now 41 years old, James will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. He could opt to retire after this season but is widely expected instead to return for a grand farewell tour in the 2026-27 NBA campaign.
James is friends with both Curry and Green and even shares an agent (Rich Paul of Klutch Sports) with the latter. But he also has a strong individual rivalry with the Warriors, having faced them in four straight NBA Finals from 2015-18 (losing in three of them).
Interestingly enough, Golden State seriously pursued James at the 2024 NBA trade deadline. But that potential trade was reportedly blocked by James’ agent Paul for a notable reason.
Earlier this year, the Warriors were one of four teams named in connection with James for his expected 24th career season in 2026-27. But now it sounds like that list for James has been narrowed down to just three teams instead.
