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In a story that keeps on giving (and will continue to give for the foreseeable future), it’s still a commonly held belief that the Lakers are going to be the landing spot for current Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James.
In a column published Wednesday by Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch, seven NBA journalists were asked where James would be playing in the 2018-19 season. over half of them definitively said the Lakers while each of them listed Los Angeles as at least a possibility.
The strongest quote came from Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck:
I don’t know, and no one else does either. I do believe, based on people I’ve spoken with in the last six months, that there’s a reasonable chance he leaves Cleveland again. I’ve had team executives swear—as long ago as May—that LeBron’s departure was a near certainty. The general belief around the league is that, if he does leave, he’ll land with the Lakers. How much of that is belief/speculation vs. inside knowledge is hard to say. It’s a gossipy league. Sometimes the gossip is accurate (hello, Paul George) and sometimes not. LeBron is a complex guy. I’m not about to predict his next move.
As Beck said, the league is a gossip-driven one, but this is also a story that isn’t going away. Something that started months ago has continued to build and build with no substantial reports coming out suggesting the James isn’t considering leaving.
Now, the obvious caveat is that this could all be for naught and James could stay in Cleveland where he’ll retire, but it’d be silly to think that the Lakers aren’t a contender for him at this point.
