After a scathing report about Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss’ leadership and relationship with LeBron James went public, what’s the next shoe to drop, NBA insider Chris Haynes wonders. The ESPN feature included sources indicating a potential trade in 2022, which Buss later attempted to backtrack on, amid a LeBron narrative portraying her as unappreciative of how things changed after James arrived in 2018.
The timing of Buss’ recent ESPN feature, three weeks before the NBA trade deadline, is intriguing and suggests it’s setting the stage for a big move or announcement from the Lakers, as Haynes noted, per Basketnews.com.
“I just question, ‘Why now?’” Haynes said. “And if it’s ‘why now,’ usually when things like this start to trickle out, something’s about to go down. I don’t know what that is, but that’s usually how this works.”
Following the ESPN feature, Buss released a statement, per The Athletic’s Sam Amick.
“It’s really not right, given all the great things LeBron has done for the Lakers, that he has to be pulled into my family drama,” Jeanie Buss said. “To say that it wasn’t appreciated is just not true and completely unfair to him.”
NBA insider Chris Haynes has good reason to believe the Lakers could be on the cusp of making a significant move.
Jeanie Buss nearly traded Lakers’ LeBron James in 2022
Lakers governor Jeanie Buss considered trading All-Star LeBron James to the Clippers in 2022, according to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.
“Team sources say Jeanie privately bristled at LeBron James’ outsized influence within the organization, even considering trading him in 2022, and believed James wasn’t grateful enough for the team drafting his son, Bronny, in 2024,” Holmes wrote. “Jeanie privately bristled about what she felt was his lack of accountability and the way James would shift blame onto others after the Westbrook trade, the people said.
“In 2022, in the aftermath of the Westbrook trade, multiple people said Jeanie privately mused about not giving James a contract extension and, later that year, even about trading James, with the LA Clippers floated as a possibility. (This was before James received a no-trade clause in July 2024 after signing a new two-year, $104 million contract.)”
The NBA trade deadline is February 5.
