LeBron James took less than the maximum in his latest two-year contract with the Lakers in order to give the front office more financial flexibility. He cited his strong “working relationship” with the club in an interview with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“We are in a relationship and anybody knows relationships, [knows that] it’s all about committing,” James said. “It’s also about doing things to help both sides. So, we’ve been in a working relationship going on seven years … so that’s what it’s about.”
According to McMenamin, James left nearly $3MM on the table in order to help L.A. avoid the second tax apron. James, who opted out of his previous contract prior to free agency, signed his two-year pact over the weekend.
Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, James’agent, told McMenamin that James was willing to take even less money to open up the $12.9MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception for the Lakers to use to try to sign an “impact player.” The players that they hoped could be attainable for the mid-level or via sign-and-trade included Klay Thompson, James Harden, Jonas Valanciunas and DeMar DeRozan. The Lakers weren’t able to land any of them.
“It takes two to tango,” James said. “I think our front office, our coaching staff, they tried to do the job that they wanted to do or tried to get guys to come and it didn’t happen. And that’s OK. That’s part of the business. I’ve been in this business long enough to know that sometimes it happens, sometimes it don’t. So we don’t sit here and lie about or cry about it. We move on and Klay’s a great player. Obviously DeMar’s a great player. Valanciunas was one of those guys who ended up going to Washington, was someone that was in talks with us, but we move on to see how we continue to get better.”
Unless they make a trade down the road, Lakers are basically running it back with virtually the same roster. Yet, James isn’t discouraged.
“We’ve done it before and we still have two guys who commit every single day with myself and (Anthony Davis). We commit to excellence and commit to win,” he said. “And we feel like any situation, any given year, we can put ourselves in a position to be able to succeed. And we’re not that far off. We were one year removed from the Western Conference Finals. Obviously, this year it didn’t go as well this past year. Didn’t go as well as we would like, but we’re not that far off.”
Of course, James has another reason to feel good about the front office. The Lakers drafted son Bronny James in the second round, which touched off a wave of criticism that he was undeserving of being selected. However, LeBron says his son simply ignores the outside noise.
“I don’t know if people really understand Bronny,” he said. “He doesn’t care. I actually care a little bit. When I came in [as a rookie], I wanted people to like me and some of the things that people were saying about me kind of bothered me early on in my career. … He doesn’t give a (bleep). He does not care about nobody. He doesn’t even listen to that stuff. He’s like the coolest. He’s like the complete opposite of his dad.
Man, why are they doing this s tuff to this dude…well, I know why, but it’s at a messed up level, not that it hasn’t been for the last 11 or 12 years, but why does everything always have to be a thing? Why are we constantly painting people in a certain light? People complaining about discounts or not enough discounts or whatever, completely ignoring the team building and coaching issues they’ve had, and putting it entirely on 1 person…there shouldn’t have to be some sort of explanation or all the caveats.
He is probably stuck there b/c of his family, and they’ve wasted the last 7+ years of his career; he absolutely should take whatever amount he can, especially b/c there isn’t even much they could do even if he didn’t
Him getting paid doesn’t preclude them from building a roster and using a modern NBA rotation
Why am I participating in this now? I normally ignore this type of stuff, but it’s incredible how much people really are pretending that somehow LeBron james getting paid cost them some sort of super team. I guess I’m contributing to the issue now…
* it’s been 6 years
He did get a championship, wasted is strange wording
Yeah. “Championship”. smh
Yes a legit championship. Every team played under the exact same circumstances. How neutral can it get?
Kcp – caruso – lebron – davis – a centre
Ya know?
Just stop.
Sure he was. Should have played for the league minimum after conning the Lakers into drafting and giving a guaranteed contract to your son who isn’t good enough to be the 15th guy on the bench
You taking minimum wage at your job so your employer can bring more people in? It’s easy to tell other people what to do with their money. If people are going to criticize Bron for taking too much money, then every single player who is on a max contract and isn’t on a championship team should be held to the same scrutiny.
Are you this outspoken about Giannis demanding his brother be on his team and taking a max contract?
It’s ok Bronny, no need to defend your dad. You’re already on the team.
Just an airtight rebuttal
Seriously grow up. Stopping acting like somehow how much money he makes affects you or it’s coming from your pocket. He was willing to take a cut for impact players and the lakers couldn’t even get on the phone with any. Millionaire’s cutting billionaires discounts is a stupid notion. So what one of the greatest 3 players to ever play the game used his juice to get his son drafted. News flash that’s how the world works, connections and relationships breed opportunities. Nobody for years has complained about how Giannis has the bucks paying both his brothers that are worse than bronny for half a decade or how Seth curry got half a dozen extra chances until he finally developed because of who his brother is. The way people are fake outraged over this situation just as a reason to express their hate for an overall great player is dumb.
Seth Curry went undrafted and earned his opportunities through hard work and playing in the g league and summer leagues. The fact he was given opportunities had nothing to do with Steph Curry. He showed the ability to connect about 40% of his threes in the g league, course a dude that hits 40% from 3 in the minors is gonna get looks from nba teams. Same reason dudes hit over 1.000 ops in the minors in aaa get chances in mlb. Turns out the chances paid off as he’s a career .431 shooter from 3. If you don’t know wtf you’re talking about just say you don’t know wtf you’re talking about instead of making up wrong examples to prove your stupid points.
Well first off all I do know what I’m talking about because yes he went undrafted and played 1 game as a rookie for Memphis before getting cut and then you’ll never guess who signed him.. the warriors I’m sure his last name had absolutely nothing to do with him getting signed by the warriors right. Playing for 5 teams in less than 3 seasons aka given a bunch of chances before he developed into an NBA caliber player. What a moron you have to be to call me out on an example I am dead right about. Some of us do know what we are talking about maybe you should use google next time before you call someone out and are completely wrong. Way to make your self look this a moron.
My guess is Bronny is spending most of his time in the g-league and to act like the missing piece is a 55th round pick is desperate
What difference does $3 million mean to a guy who’s a billionaire? If he wanted an impact player he should have signed for the minimum.
Then you’d just whine about him building a superteam.
Why is that his responsibility to help owners manage their own money and help owners manage their own salary cap that owners themselves wanted?
Basement GM’s coming in hot with their brilliance.
I see it as LeBron’s giving up Bronny’s salary. You draft my son, give him a chance, and just take his salary off mine. That’s how I’m seeing it. Kudos to Dad for doing that as sort of a thank you.
No different than Thompson taking less money with Mavs to help the deal go through.
Sure….
Although I believe that Lebron or any player should take as much money as they can sign for because they are all underpaid due to it being an capped market which only exists in sports, but I dont ever understand how people say he is taking a paycut. He is getting a $2.3 million dollar raise from last year. That is not a paycut. I am up for a review next week and if say my boss is allowed to give me up to a 10% raise but only gives me a 8% raise, thats not taking a paycut because I didnt get the maximum allowed raise as possible.
“because they are all underpaid due to it being a capped market”
Actually, it’s not really a capped market. The NBA pays the players a percent of expected revenue and as revenue goes up, the salaries go up. It’s about as fair as it gets.
Jonas Valanciunas have 2 options: Lakers or Wizards? He select Wizards
This summer Lakers are targeting 7 stars
– Paul George
– James Harden
– Jonas Valanciunas
– Chris Paul
– Klay Thompson
– Buddy Hield
– DeMar DeRozan
Lakers don’t want to overpay these guys.
Lakers are all about “nice Gesture”
I have 4 tiers in the West…
Playoffs Lock
Tier 1: OKC, Minny, Mem
Tier 2: NO, SAC, Dal
Play-In
Tier 3: Den, LAL, GS, PHO
Lottery
Tier 4: LAC, HOU, POR, SA, UT
Memphis way too high and Denver too low. Swap them and you might be on to something.
I knew this article was coming out after they couldn’t get anyone and he didn’t take a discount. And here we are right on cue…lol
I’d have alot more respect for LeBron if he didn’t always have to try and dictate the message and PR surrounding him when literally Noone cares.
The people that don’t like him will say he never planned on taking less anyways, and no one wants to play with him anyways. His fans will all say what a stand up guy and good teammate he is for at least trying to improve the roster and taking less.
That’s the thing, all his haters care but it doesn’t matter what he does.
He wants to do one more thing before he retires and that’s play with his son and he’s about to do it so don’t be surprised if this is his last year
He did take a pay cut and it allotted them to combine salary in a trade other wise it would have to be 1 for 1
With integrity and sacrifice it isn’t genuine if you have to announce it. LeBron marketing is always talk about LeBron
As a heat fan.. I know every word of this article is PR BS….. Lebron cares more about how people perceive him than anything… lying to the point of rolling your eyes (IE he claims he had nothing to do with JJ Redick or drafting Bronny.. even though we know Rich Paul was threatening every team in the NBA if they tried to draft him)….. Lebron needs to stop trying to be what he thinks everyone else wants and just be… Lebron
To prove my last comment.. if Lebron really wanted to “win” and “help the team” he wouldn’t be demanding 50 mill a year at age 40 lol.. he would sign for the minimum (Like Jordan, Mourning, Parish, Barkley, etc etc did before him) and let the team spend the rest of the money on talent around him… nope.. Lebron gotta get his bag that he doesn’t need… just like Kobe… at the expense of the team
I personally can’t stand LeBron
But comparing his age-40 production and value to those of guys like Jordan/Zo/Barkley, all who were barely replacement-level players and only even getting deals because of their name, is disingenuous at best
Jordan signed for the minimum to boost ticket sales for a team of which he was part owner.
“We’ve done it before and we still have two guys who commit every single day with myself and (Anthony Davis). We commit to excellence and commit to win,”
Nice way to throw your teammates (except one) under the bus.
Bigger discount, why didn’t he?
Because the targeted players decided not to come to the Lakers.
What a guy!! Guys a billionaire, really nice thing of him to attempt to do. He’ll make up for it in 5-10 commercials and a movie since he’s a hard working actor. Lol. What a world.
Boring …….
Who exactly was coming to Lakers.
Why don’t you look up all max players. And tell us why they are not taking a cut and not winning.
Yeh right LeBron was going to take a steeper discount! The negative publicity forced this article!
What I got from that article is that James feels like he and A.D are the only two players on the roster and that Bronny was brought up a selfish brat that doesn’t care about anyone.
Nobody is joining the lakers to deal with the antics of being blamed when they lose.
Lebron…..”me me me me me me me me”
Lol…You forgot Rich Paul and now Bronny…And occasionally saying something good about AD or one of Paul’s clients when they’re up for a new contract…
It’s oddly satisfying to see the Lakers strike out. Lucky to be playoff eligible.
When he first said he’d take a discount in order to sign another great player, who DIDNT know that he would say (after the fact) that, “Yeah, I woulda played for free” – and accompanying article would come out?