LeBron James ' future was very much up for debate this offseason after he opted out of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers . Still, he ended up re-signing with them on a two-year, $101.35 million deal, allowing the team to avoid the daunting second apron of the league's new salary cap.
There was a lot of speculation about whether he could have chosen to leave the Lakers and sign a cheaper deal with a true title contender in an effort to chase another title before he retires. According to Gilbert Arenas , though, that would have led to a sticky situation for James.
Gil drops truth bomb on LeBron's free agency
Even though he's gearing up for his 22nd season in the NBA, LeBron hasn't really been a free agent much in his career. So when the prospect of him hitting the open market and leaving the Lakers arose, fans wondered whether he could try to join a title contender on a cheaper deal.
Arenas shut down the possibility of that happening by claiming it would have been illegal. The former All-Star said that the deal would be investigated by the league and potentially taken to court because teams would have claimed James was purposely devaluing himself.
"There's one thing he can't do," Gilbert said on Gil's Arena . "He cannot take a pay cut to go anywhere else. What if LeBron decided he was gonna team up with, let's say, Boston and say, 'I'll sign vet minimum.' What happens? A GM will say, 'He can't do that. No. We'll investigate the f*** out of that.' They said they would investigate if he took less than what he's supposed to get."
"There's only a certain amount, so if he's supposed to get 60, if he took 30 and said, 'Alright, I'm gonna go with Golden State,' you know the other owners would investigate that…Why did he take $30 million less to fit with that team? It is illegal…He is worth the max; he has to take his value. He can't devalue himself to go fit somebody else. They're gonna go find out why did he do it, what happened, and they will investigate in court," Arenas added.
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Would LeBron taking a cheaper deal have been illegal?
Technically speaking, Arenas' points are correct, but James' deal wouldn't have immediately been deemed illegal. An investigation would have ensued, and if it ended up going to court, it would have to go through a whole trial process before a verdict was reached.
While it's not as common in the NBA, players do take cheaper deals from time to time to join a contender. Heck, the Lakers just got the short end of the stick with Klay Thompson, who took less money to join the Dallas Mavericks over LA in free agency this offseason.
When it's as big of a difference as Arenas noted and for as big a name as James, then owners take note. It would have been impossible for him to take a cheaper deal without the rest of the league doing whatever they could to prevent it from happening.
So, he re-signed with the Lakers and took $3 million less to help them avoid the second apron. That he can get away with, but if it was something bigger, like some fans suggested could've happened, Gil believes that LeBron would have found himself in some trouble.
Related: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on how "everything shifted" for Lakers when LeBron James and Rajon Rondo arrived in 2018
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