After the trade deadline, some significant details about what went down during the trade period started coming out. One big piece of news was that the Golden State Warriors tried to make a move for four-time NBA champion LeBron James.
This news was massive, and more tidbits related to this attempt started to surface. One interesting bit was Draymond Green’s role in trying to get LeBron. Reports said that Draymond pushed Warriors owner Joe Lacob to explore the possibility of trading for the 39-year-old Lakers superstar.
Per ESPN:
“Armed with the encouragement of Warriors star Draymond Green, Golden State owner Joe Lacob reached out to Lakers owner Jeanie Buss to inquire whether James’ apparent public frustration could be interpreted as an opening to discuss a trade, sources said.”
Although it made sense for Draymond to initiate the trade talks, given his relationship with LeBron both on and off the court and their shared agent, the Warriors star recently set the record straight, clarifying he wasn’t the one who kicked off the idea of checking in on LeBron. Instead, he simply discussed it after the information was presented to him.
“Well, it came out almost like I’m initiating these talks,” Green said. “Like Draymond contacted LeBron. No, it came to my desk. Something came over to my desk, and I was like, ‘Hmm, that’s interesting.’ Let me dive in a little bit. And so, you know, you tend to, you know, use relationships. Rich is my agent as well, so I can have that conversation with Rich. But I didn’t initiate these talks.”
Interestingly, another aspect of the story is Draymond’s perspective on the potential trade. While he found the idea of trading for LeBron interesting, he suggested that he would not have supported the move if it meant including Warriors young forward Jonathan Kuminga in the deal.
Draymond Green wouldn’t trade Jonathan Kuminga for LeBron James pic.twitter.com/vutVQExQjp
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 19, 2024
