The bond between LeBron James and Stephen Curry at the recent Olympics made fans imagine the prospect of both playing on the same team in the NBA.
LeBron James and Stephen Curry have just led the US basketball team to the 2024 Olympic gold medal in Paris, France.
Despite being 36 and 39 years old, respectively, the two co-captains still showed great leadership qualities along with extremely high playing s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s, helping the US team decode all formidable opponents with an undefeated record spanning from the friendly stage to official matches.
The US team went undefeated in 5 friendly matches, then went undefeated in 6 more matches at the 2024 Olympics to convincingly win the gold medal
The bond between LeBron and Curry, along with the images of the two current top basketball stars celebrating together, made fans extremely excited.
Many fans have thought about the prospect of the “king” and the “chef” standing on the same side in the NBA, whether at the Los Angeles Lakers or the Golden State Warriors. James himself also shared that he really enjoyed playing with Curry, the experience they had from the All-Star games.
Before joining the US national team this past summer, Stephen Curry and LeBron James could only stand together in the NBA All-Star games
This scenario is possible, although the possibility is extremely low. In fact, the Golden State Warriors contacted the Los Angeles Lakers half a year ago, hoping to bring LeBron James to play alongside Stephen Curry at the Chase Center.
Of course, the deal didn’t go far when the Lakers flatly rejected all of the Warriors’ offers. At the same time, one insider who strongly opposed James’ move to Golden State was Rich Paul, LeBron’s longtime agent and business partner.
Rich Paul is both LeBron James’ agent and a longtime business partner and close friend of the Los Angeles Lakers star.
Reputable expert Marc Stein has more information about this as follows:
“My sources say Rich Paul has prevented both teams from connecting and negotiating (to bring LeBron James to the Warriors – PV). The main reason is because Paul does not want LeBron to become the center of criticism from fans, changing his jersey color to chase the championship ring.
Despite the secret negotiations between the two team owners, including Joe Lacob of the Warriors and Jeanie Buss of the Lakers, and the active promotion of Draymond Green, Paul still strongly opposed it.
Previously, LeBron James had “played the bad guy” when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, building a super team with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Ray Allen in 2010.
Clearly, Rich Paul does not want his client to be criticized by the public like 14 years ago, considering the current situation when social media and the fan community have become much more “aggressive”.
LeBron James and Stephen Curry have faced each other in four consecutive NBA Finals series (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018)
After the 2024 Olympic campaign, LeBron James and Stephen Curry will return to their reality in the NBA, where both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors are just slightly better than the mid-level teams and cannot compete for the championship.
For the Los Angeles Lakers, the purple and yellow team “stayed calm” in the recent transfer market. They let a few key players leave and also missed out on some transfer targets such as DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas or Gary Trent Jr.
As for the Golden State Warriors, no one knows what will happen to the team after the “Slash Brothers” era when Klay Thompson said goodbye to the club and joined the Dallas Mavericks.
