Sports: LeBron recruiting Steph to join him in Los Angeles?
LeBron James is recruiting Stephen Curry to join him in Los Angeles, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
The recruitment started at the All-Star Game in Atlanta when the superstar players were famously on the same team for the first time.
The news — delivered on Windhorst’s ‘Hoop Collective’ podcast
— is sure to bring about grunts and eye-rolls around the NBA. Windhorst was even laughed at on his own show.
But you should stop laughing. I don’t think it’s crazy at all.
I’m not saying that Curry is going to join the Lakers (or another team; you can’t rule that out with LeBron). No, no, no.
What I am saying is “Of course LeBron is recruiting Steph.”
Credit to my man Alex Simon, who made this point to me on the Locker Room app. It’s spoton: It would only be news if LeBron wasn’t recruiting Curry.
LeBron has been the de-facto GM of his teams for a decadeplus now. He’s always in winnow mode, and through influence, charm, and a little company called Klutch Sports, he ensures he has the best players around him at all times.
And Curry, who is extension eligible at the end of the season and whose current contract ends after the 2021-22 season, is a perfect target. He’s an awesome player. Monday night, in his first game since bruising his tailbone March 17, he scored 32 points to take the Warriors out of a four-game skid.
With great player empowerment comes great player responsibility, and being a recruiter is one of those responsibilities.
Curry knows all about it; he helped recruit Kevin Durant to Golden State.
Now, nothing will happen from this. Curry is too loyal to leave the Warriors now, much less to go to a rival team. (If he were to ever leave, it’d be to go to his hometown Hornets.) And I can’t imagine a world where he demands a trade.
But this is the game within the game, and no one plays it better than LeBron. Frankly, he’s a genius for having figured it out so early in his career. He has the power to never have to experience bad seasons, he wields it fully, and he delivers, winning championships in Miami, Cleveland, and now L.A.
And he has no shame about it.
Nor should he.
As much as fans might bemoan this kind of recruitment and “superteams” there shouldn’t be a star in the league who doesn’t participate in this kind of backroom dealing.
And if there’s anything to be gleaned from this small bit of obvious news, it’s that Curry should be thinking about channeling his inner LeBron doing this kind of recruitment again.
The Warriors have two different timelines going right now: young and old. The olds — Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson — only above a few years of title contention remaining, whereas the youngs — James Wiseman, whoever the Warriors land with Minnesota’s draft pick — are a few years, at least, away.
As good as Andrew Wiggins was against the Bulls on Monday, forgive me for thinking he’s not an appropriate bridge.
Is Curry willing to scorch the earth in the noble pursuit of more titles in the coming years? Does he have the desire to take ownership of a team he, more than anyone including ownership, turned into a cash-printing juggernaut?
I doubt it. Again, he’s loyal, frankly, to a fault.
But seeing how well it’s worked out for Mr. James, it’s certainly worth consideration.
As for the recruitment? Tip your hat to the King. He knows that in the NBA, shame is an impediment to success.