It’s unclear where LeBron James will play next season, but it seems like a certainty that he’ll be with the Los Angeles Lakers this season. He had a chance to opt out of his contract and be a free agent, but he decided to pick up his $52.6 million player option.
There was a brief moment where it looked like he could request a trade, but he appears committed to the Lakers for this season. While Los Angeles would’ve had a hard time replacing him, Skip Bayless believes that they secretly wish he had opted out of his contract and left in free agency.
“It’s starting to strongly feel like the Lakers would have been fine if LeBron had just gone ahead and opted out and gone elsewhere. They would have been fine with that,” Bayless said on “The Skip Bayless Show.” “It feels like, smells like they’ve already decided to move on from LeBron after the next season in which they are stuck with LeBron at 52.6 million.”
Bayless has been critical of James throughout his entire career, so it’s not a surprise that he’d think the Lakers don’t want him anymore. Considering James has a no-trade clause in his contract, there’s not much the team can do even if they would like to move on.
Bayless Believes James Is Playing for a Contract
James is 40 now, but he could continue playing for a few more years. However, he doesn’t have any contract security past this season.
Teams will want to sign him next offseason if he keeps playing at an All-NBA level, but they will be apprehensive to give him a big contract due to his age.
“He’s actually playing for a contract because it’s pretty clear to me that he does not wanna finish his career anywhere but in Hollywood, where he’s building his forever home high above the city that will be home to his second career in the entertainment world,” Bayless said.
Bayless Feels ‘Sorry’ for James
This offseason, Luka Doncic has been the most talked-about Laker. Doncic was recently on the cover of Men’s Fitness, showing off his body transformation, and Bayless thinks that negatively affects James.
“Allow me to tell you why I now feel sorry for LeBron James,” Bayless said. “Luka just LeBroned LeBron. Just fed him some of his own PR medicine, which made LeBron shrink and go quiet and disappear.”
James later posted a photo of himself at a gym with a Clippers logo in the background. Bayless thinks that was a calculated move.
“Man, that sounded bitter. And I can’t blame him. As LeBron posted these pictures, earlier this past week, Luka was in the process of flexing on LeBron the way LeBron has often flexed on so many co-stars of his,” Bayless said.
“Luka, as you know, now went crash diet bootcamping in Croatia and outshaped even LeBron. He got even more ripped than LeBron. I don’t know, there may have been even some photoshopping. Luka even did media manipulation on LeBron, the number 1 media manipulator.”
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