LeBron James and Stephen Curry 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 show great leadership qualities along with extremely high playing skills, helping the US team decode all formidable opponents with an undefeated record spanning from friendly matches to official matches.

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 imagined 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 has also shared that he really enjoys playing with Curry, the experience they have gained from the All-Star matches.

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 with 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.

Reputable expert Marc Stein has more information about this as follows:

“My sources say Rich Paul has blocked both teams from connecting and negotiating (to bring LeBron James to the Warriors – PV). The main reason is that Paul does not want LeBron to become the center of criticism from fans, changing his jersey color to chase the championship ring.

Despite secret negotiations between the two team owners, including Warriors’ Joe Lacob and Lakers’ Jeanie Buss, and Draymond Green’s aggressive push, Paul was still vehemently opposed.

LeBron James once “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.

It’s clear that Rich Paul doesn’t want his client to be subjected to the same public criticism as he was 14 years ago, given the current situation where social media and the fan community have become much more “aggressive”.

At the end of the 2024 Olympic campaign, LeBron James and Stephen Curry will return to their reality in the NBA, where both the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors are just slightly better than mid-table teams and cannot compete for the championship.

As for the Los Angeles Lakers, the purple and yellow team “remained calm” in the recent transfer market. They let a few key players leave and also lost 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.

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Source: The Wall Street Journal