LeBron James has had a rivalry with the Golden State Warriors ever since the 2014-15 NBA season.
He battled the city’s finest in the NBA Finals every year for nearly half a decade during his second stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers and came home with the prize once (2015-16).
Then, a few years later, after he departed Cleveland for Los Angeles, he had to face off against them again in the Western Conference semifinals, where he and the Lakers beat the Warriors to advance to the next round.
LeBron has a history with Golden State. In the previous decade, he was their main nemesis and the fans booed him whenever they could.
But this is modern NBA and rivalries don’t really mean anything because all of the league’s superstars are friends. And fans only hate them until they join their favourite team.
There’s no real bad blood.
That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised that the Warriors tried to trade for LeBron at the trade deadline.
Okay, that’s a lie.
You should be surprised because this would’ve been a huge trade that no one would have seen coming.
Anyway, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne, Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob, via encouragement from Draymond Green, contacted the Los Angeles Lakers about a potential trade for LeBron.
However, despite once expressing an interest in playing with Steph Curry, King James declined the offer as he wants to return to the Lakers and try to win his second title in a purple and gold uniform.
But could you imagine if the trade went through?
It would have been as big as -if not bigger than- the James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers trade. It would have placed the Warriors as the favourites to win the championship.
But the deal didn’t happen, so this is just a “what if” moment.
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