NBA insider reveals LeBron James was close to being traded during 2024 season

Even at the age of 39, LeBron James is still one of the best players in the NBA. He holds the record for most NBA All-Star appearances with 20. Considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, the future Hall of Famer can still draw a big crowd to every arena he plays in.

While it seems ridiculous, there was a point last season when LeBron trade rumors started to emerge. The Lakers were just 25-25, and there was no guarantee they would make the playoffs. That only increased chatter about the basketball icon potentially being traded from the Lakers. Now, we’ve learned that a James trade was even closer than anyone ever imagined.

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LeBron James was nearly traded to Golden State Warriors at 2024 deadline

The 2024 NBA trade deadline came and went, and LeBron James didn’t get traded. However, according to NBA insider Marc Stein, James was nearly traded to the Golden State Warriors. If it hadn’t been for LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul, he might have ended the season playing alongside Steph Curry in the Bay Area.

“Yet league sources say that the reported talks between the teams at the time never got that far in large part because James’ agent Rich Paul was adamantly opposed to the idea of James swapping Southern California for Northern California. Sources say Paul implored both teams to scrap the concept — despite some owner-to-owner dialogue between the Warriors’ Joe Lacob and the Lakers’ Jeanie Buss and Green’s determination to lobby James to push for relocation to the Bay Area — largely because he wanted to insulate James from potential backlash over switching teams for the fourth time in his career.”

NBA insider Marc Stein on LeBron James trade to Golden State Warriors

The Lakers did ultimately make the playoffs, but were bounced out of the first round in a five-game series against the Denver Nuggets. Ironically, it was the Warriors who missed the playoffs after finishing 10th in the Western Conference. Yet, maybe if they had been able to pull off a trade for James, the Warriors could have reached the postseason. We’ll never know what type of impact he could have had.

Instead, James stayed put, and now he gets to team up with his eldest son, Bronny, in a Lakers uniform.

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