Wilbon calls on Warriors to trade for LeBron to maximize Steph’s window originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After their gold medal-winning run in the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer, there inevitably would be an appetite for Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James to unite with Warriors guard Steph Curry on an NBA court.
Various NBA personalities have suggested Curry could join James in Los Angeles, but ESPN analyst Michael Wilbon called on the Warriors to make a move to bring their longtime foe to the Bay.
Wilbon expressed a lack of confidence in the Warriors’ and Lakers’ current rosters on Friday’s episode of “NBA Today.”
“Let’s cut to the chase. All those assets are great if Steph and Draymond were 31 and 32 years old,” Wilbon stated. “You could sort of wait on them — and I love [Jonathan] Kuminga — but they’re not 31 and 32 years old. You’re talking about maximizing now. They’re not catching Oklahoma City. They’re not catching Dallas … with the personnel they have currently assembled.”
So, in Wilbon’s eyes, why not take a shot at acquiring an all-time great, even though he wasn’t sure that Golden State could rise to the top of the Western Conference even with James?
“But if you tell me, if anybody watched the Olympics this summer, and you watched LeBron James and Steph Curry play together, how can you not want to see that?” Wilbon continued. “I’m not saying it’s easy when you will tell us how possible it is, if at all. But you tell me, the Lakers stink … Is LeBron going to ride out another season like that? Why would he?”
Given the fairly close proximity between the two California teams, Wilbon proposed a unique work-life arrangement for James.
“You can’t play in San Francisco and live in Los Angeles if you want to?” Wilbon speculated. “This is tailor-made for those two guys to play together and finish their careers.”
Again, is a Steph-LeBron alliance likely? Probably not. But it sure would be a must-watch.
