CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 26: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts to a call during the second half against the Chicago Bulls on January 26, 2026 at...
Teams reportedly interested in the four-time NBA champion aren’t optimistic about their chances of landing James, according to ESPN insider Brian Windhorst.
LeBron James has yet to make a decision in free agency this summer. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
“I’ve talked to people in Philly, and I’m like what do you think? Everybody I talk to is like, ‘we’re afraid it’s Cleveland,'” Windhorst said on the Pardon My Take podcast.
“Nobody seems like they have optimism.”
Brian Windhorst on conversations he's had regarding LeBron James:
"Everybody I talk to is like, 'We're afraid it's Cleveland.' Nobody seems like they have optimism to be honest."pic.twitter.com/KUxpzfJcBP
Returning to Cleveland was always the storybook ending for James since he began his career with the Cavaliers.
At 41 years old, James is still a productive player as he is coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists. He shot 51.5% from the field and 31.7% from beyond the arc in 60 games with the Lakers.
The 2025–26 campaign marked the first time James had missed opening night for the first time in his 23-year NBA career because of a sciatica injury. Despite missing the start of the season, James played a crucial role for the Lakers down the stretch after Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves sustained injuries in the final weeks of the regular season.
James spearheaded the Lakers’ postseason run, which ended in the second round of the NBA playoffs after the Oklahoma City Thunder swept LA in four games.
The Game 4 loss to OKC marked James’ final game in a Lakers uniform.
Now, it appears the next chapter for James may be a poetic one as Cleveland appears to be the winner of his free agency sweepstakes.
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Phoenix Suns General Manager Brian Gregory is keeping his right-hand man around for the foreseeable future, as Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein is finalizing a new extension to keep him working with the team on the business and basketball side, according to ESPN NBA Insider Shams Charania.
Phoenix Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein is finalizing a new extension, further cementing the partnership with owner Mat Ishbia to shape business and basketball operations of both franchises, sources tell ESPN.
With the extension being announced, Suns Governor Mat Ishbia gave Bartelstein high praise in a statement he gave to ESPN.
“From day one, I knew Josh was the right person to help build the culture and organization that I envisioned in Phoenix – on and off the court. He is my trusted partner in every aspect of our basketball (Suns and Mercury) operations and business side as well. His knowledge of basketball, care for our players, and the strong relationships he has across the NBA and WNBA have been invaluable in building our success and will continue to shape our future. His leadership has elevated our entire organization.
“He is one of the best CEO’s in all of sports, and happens to be one of the youngest too, and I’m excited to keep working next to Josh as we continue to build on our success.”
A former college basketball player at the University of Michigan, Bartelstein, who’s been with the Suns since 2023, played a major part in the team trading for Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic in his first year working with the team. With his father Mark being Beal’s agent, much was made about the relationship Josh had with his father to negotiate the trade, along with his buyout last offseason.
However, after a season in which the team surprised many by increasing its win total by 9 games and making the playoffs after missing them the season before, Ishbia and company rewarded Bartelstein with an extension. The Phoenix Suns have already had a busy offseason by resigning many of their free agents, trading for Miles Bridges, signing Luke Kennard and Pat Spencer, making a deal to draft Koa Peat with the 30th pick, and now extending Bartelstein.
The Jaylen Brown trade between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers became official Monday afternoon, and it has caused quite a reaction around the basketball world since it was first reported last week.
The C’s traded Brown, who they drafted No. 3 overall in 2016 and won a championship with in 2024, to the Sixers in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
A few hours after the deal was made official, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and team owner Bill Chisholm held a press conference. The theme was “optionality.” This was a word Stevens used many times when responding to questions about this trade.
“I think when you use the term ‘optionality’, you’re talking about just length of contract and assets,” Stevens said. “So that’s where the increased optionality comes from.”
George’s contract is shorter than Brown’s, and the C’s got four picks in this trade that they can use to make other roster additions.
You can watch the entire press conference in the video below. And under the video player, we highlighted the best moments from the event.
Two stars taking up 70 percent of the salary cap
The current CBA makes it very challenging to build out a roster with enough depth if you have two superstars on max contracts that take up 70 percent of the salary cap. Stevens noted that when the C’s won the NBA Finals in 2024, Tatum and Brown made up 47 percent of the cap combined.
“When I looked at our team, and I looked at where the league was heading, looked at the way that we’ve finished the last couple of years and also looked at the unbelievable way we’ve played in the regular season in the last couple of years, the path looked a little bit more challenging to me,” Stevens said.
“I might be wrong. I’m not going to stand up here and be defensive about that. But the path looked a little bit more challenging with 70 percent of our cap and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players.
“And the reality in this era, and in this day and age of the NBA, and you could see it, obviously, with the last couple of champions and some of the teams that were at the very top of the league, when it was all said and done at the end of this year is that, you have to do a great job and you have to have the optionality to do a great job of building out depth that can hopefully replace the irreplaceable individual. And that’s not an easy thing to do, right?
“And we get that. And that’s absolutely nothing against Jaylen, right? If you have Jaylen Brown on your team, you should feature him. You should use all those possessions, and you should approach things that way. But I think the importance of depth, and then obviously, we have to continue to work on ways to diversify our attack overall. All that being said, still would not have made a move unless we thought the right opportunity presented itself.”
Paul George is not as good as Jaylen Brown. George also is 36 years old and, mostly due to injuries, has played more than 60 games in a season only once since 2019. But he is still a good player. George, when healthy, remains a quality scorer and a reliable defender. He played fantastic in the Sixers’ first-round upset over the Celtics this past season.
“We like Paul,” Stevens said. “Paul’s a really good player. We’re not very far removed from all sitting in our series against Philadelphia and watching Paul be a guy that could carry you, for portions of a quarter or a half, but also play a complementary role on both ends of the floor at the highest of levels. He’s excited to come to Boston. He actually already came in this weekend, and we’re excited to get a chance to work with him.”
The two first-round picks the Celtics got from the Sixers in this trade could end up being the most useful assets for Boston. It can be hard sometimes for fans to get really excited about draft picks years down the road, but the more first-rounders you own, the more options you have in the trade market.
“From the draft assets, I get it. I’m a fan first and foremost,” Stevens said. “When I was a kid, I could care less about what picks came back, right? Especially second-round picks. I get it. But the draft assets in this whole deal, the way we looked at it was there are two potential premium assets.
“And so, the quality of the assets, both the 2031 Philly (pick) and the super complicated 2028 pick, which we don’t really need to go into here, both offer potential, who knows, big swings at the apple. And then the second-round picks are sweeteners that you can use in deals to do things to put your team over the top, or maybe draft Jordan Walsh or Dillon Mitchell or somebody you’re really excited about.
“At the end of the day, those guys aren’t Jaylen, but I understand that ultimately, there’s a lot of small steps that it’ll take to build out the depth in the team that we ultimately want to.”
Trading Brown to a rival such as Philadelphia
It’s not easy to trade a great player to a longtime rival that also happened to beat you in the most recent NBA playoffs. But at the end of the day, the job of the front office is to make the best possible trade.
“The Philly part, that is a hard thing, to trade a guy that you, first of all, care so much about, but secondly, have so much respect and admiration for, to a team that just beat you in the playoffs, and that you’re gonna literally play six times before the playoffs next year with our two preseason games,” Stevens said.
“But I do think that ultimately, when you do a deal, you have to be thinking about you first and the optionality it creates for you. If I was being honest, if that exact deal came from a team out west and you were comparing the two, then you’d probably take the team out west, but that’s not the way it was working.”
Stevens made it clear he did not ask for Tatum’s, or any other player’s input, about the trade.
“I have a real hard, fast rule: I don’t ask other guys about other guys because it’s not — I don’t want to put them in that position, and so he had none,” Stevens said.
“The mandate here is to win”
Celtics owner Bill Chisholm made it clear that the goal for the Celtics is to win, and that the team is not afraid to spend money to make that happen.
“This was all about trying to win and really trusting in our process,” Chisholm said. “We have, I think, the best front office in the NBA, and they put in their work and they came to the conclusion this was the best way for us to win. The mandate is to win. And I just have to keep saying that. We’ll spend whatever it takes to do that. The mandate is to win.”
Analytics has been a popular talking point in regards to this trade, especially on social media and the comments from a Bobby Marks interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio last week.
Stevens considered analytics a “small” part of the process here.
“You take in every angle and every ounce of information that you have, and you put it all together, right? For me, and Mike and his staff might get mad at me — they do every day — I would say that was a small piece of information for me,” Stevens said.
Next moves
There’s been some debate over whether the Celtics have another move lined up. Stevens didn’t suggest there’s anything coming soon.
“We’re open, and we’ll be open. I don’t anticipate anything in the very near term,” Stevens said. “We do like the team we have. We might be able to add to it, but at the end of the day, we like the group we have.
“We like the people that we think will be able to officially sign. We’re cognizant that we have a lot of work to do.”
College basketball journeyman Kerr Kriisa, who played for four teams in six years, has been indicted by the FBI on multiple counts of wire fraud that occurred during his time in West Virginia.
The charges, which were unrelated to sports gambling or actions on the court, are laid out in court documents obtained by USA TODAY Sports. They include five counts of wire fraud that saw Kriisa texting people, often under the alias "Irene" asking for money for multiple "emergencies."
Kriisa, who played for Arizona, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Cincinnati in his college career, "allegedly carried out a scheme to obtain nearly $2.2 million from multiple victims using false representations, fabricated identities, and deceptive communications," per the DOJ's release on his arrest. Among the alleged attempted scams, Kriisa — who was most recently playing basketball in his home country of Estonia — allegedly tried to ask for money to help his mother who was sick with cancer and asked for money to save his family's farm.
Kriisa averaged 8.8 points per game, including 11 points per game at West Virginia in the 2023-24 season.
And after upping his physicality last season for Illinois, becoming a weapon on the boards and brick wall on defense, the Brooklyn Nets signed him to an Exhibit-10 contract to give him a chance to show what he can do.
His first Summer League game came in a narrow loss to the Sacramento Kings, where he put up six points on 2-for-5 shooting from three-point range. But that’s not all he did. Humrichous showcased that same physicality he utilized last season, snagging two boards, two steals and one block.
Just a day later, after building up some confidence, he decided he’d carry the offensive load for the Nets to help them secure a 20-point blowout victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Humrichous racked up 15 points after knocking down 5-of-12 from beyond the arc. That’s a lot of triples. In his entire career at Illinois, Humrichous hit five threes in only three games.
But yet again, he offered more on the court than just three-pointers, snagging eight rebounds and tallying two steals.
And to make his night even better, one of Humrichous’ five threes was a buzzer-beater to end the first quarter.
If all of his summer league performances look like this, Illinois fans could see Humrichous earn some real minutes for the Nets in the regular season.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - NOVEMBER 25: Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers wait for a free throw during the first quarter at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on November 25, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It’s understandable if you took the holiday weekend off of LeBron Watch.
Unfortunately, the latest seems to suggest James could be nearing a reunion with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst seemingly confirmed that the Cavs are the favorites on Pardon My Take Monday.
“I’ve talked to people in Philly, and I’m like what do you think? ‘We’re afraid it’s Cleveland,’ – everybody I talked to is like ‘we’re afraid it’s Cleveland,’ – nobody seems like they have optimism,” – @WindhorstESPN on the latest with LeBron James 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/aGcO0GiPFo
“I can’t take that off the table,” Windhorst said when asked about the idea of ending a championship drought in Philly being alluring to James.
Longtime NBA Insider Marc Stein’s opinion was slightly different.
“The teams that are in this as we speak, still believe they’re in this,” – @TheSteinLine with an update on what he’s hearing about LeBron Watch. pic.twitter.com/TpEbvyn54x
So, the Sixers are still in it, but how much optimism you want to have is up to you.
Over the weekend, James was photographed after playing a round of golf with Cavs assistant GM Brandon Weems and friends in Akron. It’s worth noting that LeBron frequently goes back to his hometown in the offseason and Weems is one of his best friends.
Again, you choose to read those tea leaves however you’d like.
If he ultimately chooses Cleveland, it truly feels sentimentality-based. From a basketball standpoint, James would likely be tasked with guarding the opponent’s top perimeter threat every night while sharing the floor with Donovan Mitchell and old friend James Harden. Harden’s heliocentric nature also feels like a clunky fit with LeBron offensively.
Meanwhile, the Sixers and Timberwolves might present his best chance to win. He’d slide in at the power forward on either roster and immediately make them a legitimate contender in their respective conference. The Golden State Warriors are also still in the mix, but it seems like that might be contingent on them acquiring Anthony Davis from the Washington Wizards, something that doesn’t seem likely as of now.
A reunion with the Miami Heat — and partnering up with Giannis Antetokounmpo — also can’t be ruled out. Nor can the idea of James playing alongside Nikola Jokic with the Denver Nuggets.
As the moratorium ends and deals are officially announced this afternoon, we await LeBron’s decision. Only fitting for The King to take over one more NBA offseason before he hangs it up.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, 31, left a remarkable legacy on the city of Milwaukee. 13 seasons, 10 All-Star Games, two MVP awards, an NBA title, and a partridge in a pear tree.
However, that didn't stop Bucks president Josh Glessing from trading their legend away to the Miami Heat this offseason. Albeit, the Bucks did endure an underwhelming season and saw themselves miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade. That said, to trade away your franchise cornerstone, the man who gave everything he had to give your team everything they've earned, is a hard task regardless.
Rumors had been swirling about Giannis' departure for most of the season as well. It was only a matter of time, but that doesn't make the reality of the situation any less heartbreaking. And to boot, Antetokounmpo just posted a sorrowful video to social media thanking everyone involved during his time in Wisconsin.
— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) July 6, 2026
What does Antetokounmpo say in his goodbye video?
In his video, Antetokounmpo stresses that he does not want the city of Milwaukee or the state of Wisconsin to remember him for the wins, the losses, the championships, or the basketball.
"I try to be like them," he says.
He describes the city as "blue collar." He continues, "It's people who work hard every day. And give all their hard-earned money just to come watch the Milwaukee Bucks ... I hope that I was able to represent them the best that I could."
Antetokounmpo then goes on to describe Milwaukee as his home. "This is a place that I had my kids. My mom is here. My father is here. My brothers played here. It made me the man that I am today."
"No matter where I am, Milwaukee will always be my city, my team, my family."
Other social media posts for Antetokounmpo's farewell
Statements from the Milwaukee Bucks on the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade to the Miami Heat:
Bucks owners Wes Edens, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, and Jamie Dinan: “From delivering a championship to transforming our franchise, Giannis' impact on the Milwaukee Bucks is lasting and…
You came to Milwaukee 13 years ago as a kid from Sepolia with an impossible dream. Over the past 13 years we have witnessed you grow into one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, the greatest Buck of all time, and the driving force behind an era of Bucks basketball… pic.twitter.com/6oDA0APFwh
Apr 24, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) reacts after making a basket during the first quarter against the Houston Rockets during game three of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Rockets fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
The 2026 NBA Free Agency season kicked off last week. The Rockets signed Bogdan Bogdanovic and Marcus Smart. They also re-signed Tari Eason and traded away Dorian Finney-Smith. We want you to grade the new Rockets signings only. So that doesn’t include the Eason re-up or the Finney-Smith trade, as they received no players back in those transactions. So grade the new Rockets pickups.
Cast your vote, tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with the results.
Restricted free agent Quinten Post is signing a three-year, $30 million contract offer sheet with the Memphis Grizzlies, according to NBA insider Shams Charania.
The Golden State Warriors have until 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday to match the offer. However, that seems highly unlikely given the considerable contract from Memphis.
Warriors center Quinten Post signed a three-year, $30 million offer sheet with the Memphis Grizzlies. Getty Images
Post is coming off a 2025-26 campaign where he averaged 7.7 points, four rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting 44% from the field and 33.6% from the field. The big man played a depth role for the Warriors, which leaves Golden State in a tricky situation.
The team can match the Grizzlies’ offer, which would be a massive overpay. Or they can let Post walk, which would leave a glaring hole on the roster.
The Golden State Warriors have until 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday to match the offer. Getty Images
Post was the 52nd overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and spent the last two seasons as a rotation player for the Warriors. Now, he’ll get the chance to have a starting role with the Grizzlies if the Warriors don’t match the offer by the deadline.
Golden State has already agreed to bring back center Kristaps Porzingis and forward Al Horford, which gives them limited financial flexibility to sign Post. The Warriors are also one of the reported six finalists in the LeBron James sweepstakes.
Thus, it seems certain Post will join No. 3 overall pick Cam Boozer in Memphis as the Grizzlies look to rebuild the franchise with fresh faces. The team traded star guard Ja Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, signals the organization’s desire to revamp the roster.
The Miami Heat’s newest superstar appeared on a stream with popular YouTuber and Kick streamer known as N3on. Rangesh Mutama is known for his personality, controversies and collaborations with celebrities.
Having only played together in an All-Star game, Giannis Antetokounmpo makes a free agency pitch to LeBron James to join him in Miami.
Antetokounmpo discussed James and revealed the NBA’s all-time leading scorer is the player he enjoys watching the most.
“The person I like to watch a lot is LeBron James,” Antetokounmpo said.
Giannis Antetokounmpo may have just made a free agency pitch to LeBron James. NBAE via Getty Images
As for who the greatest of all-time is, he put Michael Jordan and James at the top. Antetokounmpo said it was unfair to compare eras, but he sees Jordan and James as the greatest basketball players ever.
Later in the stream, Antetokounmpo was directly asked whether he’d like to team up with James. The Heat superstar offered a cryptic response and simply shrugged his shoulders.
The two-time MVP’s arrival to Miami signaled a new era for the Heat after missing the playoffs last season and making a first round exit during the 2024-25 campaign.
But Antetokounmpo could use another star in the lineup. While the 31-year-old went to a better city and franchise, he’s landed in a similar situation basketball-wise. Miami’s frontcourt will be strong with Bam Adebayo and Antetokounmpo, but the team lacks depth and athleticism.
Landing James wouldn’t solve all of Miami’s problems, but it would certainly change the optics on the Heat entering the 2026-27 season.
James is reportedly considering the Heat as a free agent destination, but his decision remains the biggest question mark of the summer.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 15: Quinten Post #21 of the Golden State Warriors reacts after making a shot against the Memphis Grizzlies during the NBA play-in tournament game at Chase Center on April 15, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It looks like Quinten Post’s time with the Golden State Warriors will end this week. On Monday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the sharpshooting Dutch big man was signing a three-year, $30 million offer sheet with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Earlier in the offseason, the Warriors had tendered the qualifying offer to Post. Doing so made the 26 year old a restricted free agent, allowing the Warriors to match any contract offer he receives this offseason. As such, they have until 8:59 p.m. PT on Tuesday to match the $30 million deal that Post has been offered by Memphis.
Update: Per reporter Jake Fischer, only the first year of the deal is guaranteed. Cheekily, the contract also features seven figures in incentives that are highly unlikely to be met, but incentives do count towards the apron, making it more difficult for Golden State to take on the contract.
It seems very likely that the Warriors will pass on matching the contract. While they like Post, their second-round pick in 2024, he had fallen out of the rotation by the end of last season, and Golden State started the offseason by re-signing Al Horford and extending Kristaps Porziņģis. They’ll certainly need to add another big man or two given the health concerns of Horford and Porziņģis, but given their tight finances and their continued pursuit of LeBron James, it’s safe to say that Golden State will explore avenues for frontcourt depth that don’t include giving their third-string center $10 million a year.
Post appeared in 109 games over his two-year Warriors tenure, and started 49 of them. He averaged 7.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game in 16.9 minutes, while shooting 36.4% from three-point range. He’ll presumably now get the chance to play a large role on a rebuilding Grizzlies team that has traded Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane in recent years.
The Lakers' Rui Hachimura looks on during a game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on April 24. (Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)
Rui Hachimura became the latest Lakers player to move on, agreeing to a two-year, $28-million deal with the Clippers on Monday, people familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed to The Times.
Hachimura played at a high level for the Lakers in the playoffs, averaging 17.5 points per game in 10 postseason games, the third-highest average on the team.
He was a lights-out shooter, making 54.9 percent of his field goals and a sizzling 56.9 percent of his three-pointers, which ranked him fifth in three-point shooting during the NBA playoffs.
According to people familiar with the team but not authorized to speak publicly, some members of the Clippers coaching staff liked how Hachimura played and thought he would be a good pickup because of his shooting and athleticism.
The Lakers acquired Hachimura, 28, from the Washington Wizards in Jan. 2023. He spent three-plus seasons with the Lakers and was a favorite of his teammates.
His ability to knock down three-pointers from the corner opened up things for Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, both of whom could rely on Hachimura to be ready to catch and shot even when he didn’t get many touches.
Over 68 games last season with the Lakers, 41 as a starter, Hachimura averaged 11.5 points and shot 51.4 percent from the field and 44.3 percent from three-point range.
He started all 10 playoff games for the Lakers, scoring a playoff-high 25 points against the Thunder in 43 minutes, going nine-for-15 from the field, four-for-eight from three-point range.
New Lakers center Walker Kessler, left, proposed to 2025 Miss America Abbie Stockard on July 4. (Getty Images)
Once again, Walker Kessler sat hunched forward, ears and eyes intently locked onto the person whose words would change his life.
This wasn’t his bewildering 2022 NBA draft day experience captured on video that began with him hearing commissioner Adam Silver announce he had been chosen by the Memphis Grizzlies only to learn moments later that he had been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, only to learn two weeks after that he’d been dealt to the Utah Jazz.
No, this time it was about the love of his life, Abbie Stockard. Glued to a screen, Kessler reacted to the words, “Your new Miss America is ... Alabama!” as if he’d been electrocuted. He jumped from his chair and put his hands over his mouth, speechless as Stockard was crowned.
Nineteen months later, Kessler — now the Lakers center — found his voice while on a Fourth of July outing at Lake Martin, Ala., and asked Stockard to marry him. She said yes.
The Lakers obtained the 7-foot-2 Kessler from the Jazz on July 1 in exchange for 2031 and 2033 first-round picks and 2028 and 2030 pick swaps, bringing to L.A. a strong defensive presence to accompany offensive-first star guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
Kessler, 24, agreed to a four-year, $130 million contract, not a bad nest egg for newlyweds. The Instagram story of the two sharing their engagement was captioned: “The future Kessler’s. Let’s get y’all married!!!”
Kessler’s mother, Andrea, played matchmaker two years ago, taking a photo of Stockard during an Auburn basketball game and sending it to her son. He messaged her on Instagram.
Stockard was on the dance team at Auburn, where she studied pediatric nursing. Now she is a former Miss America engaged to the Lakers’ newest star.
“I get to marry Walker Kessler — my best friend!,” she wrote on social media. “Our story is truly one that only the Lord could have written. So many things I once thought were coincidences were really His perfect plan unfolding, and our story is greater than anything I could have imagined.
“There’s no one else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with, doing life together and cheering each other on!”
In 201 games with the Jazz, Kessler averaged 9.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks across 25.3 minutes. He played only five games last season while recovering from a shoulder injury.
From the moment LeBron James confirmed he would not be returning to the Los Angeles Lakers, the entire NBA ecosystem lost its collective mind.
This is what happens when the league’s all-time leading scorer, even at this stage of his career, suddenly becomes available. It doesn’t matter that he is no longer 28-year-old LeBron. It doesn’t matter that he is not going to spend 82 games dragging a flawed roster uphill with one hand while solving everyone’s spacing problems with the other. It doesn’t even matter that the league has changed around him or that the next generation has already started taking over the room. LeBron is still LeBron, which means the second he hit the open market, every contender, near-contender, dreamer, faker, and front office with a pulse started asking the same question.
Could we talk ourselves into this?
LeBron leaving Los Angeles did not exactly come out of nowhere. The writing was on the wall the moment Rob Pelinka completed the Luka Doncic trade in 2025. That move effectively marked the beginning of the next Lakers era, and no matter how much everyone tried to dress it up with polite quotes and organizational fluff, the truth was obvious. Once Luka arrived, the Lakers stopped being LeBron’s team. Austin Reaves inking a massive $185 million deal only reinforced the point. The franchise had picked its future. LeBron was still great, still marketable, still one of the smartest basketball players who has ever lived, but he was no longer the center of gravity in Los Angeles.
For most of the season, the conventional wisdom was that if LeBron left the Lakers, two destinations made the most sense. Golden State had the bromance angle: LeBron and Steph Curry, the two defining players of the 2010s, finally joining forces for one last ride in California. It would have been shamelessly sentimental and probably irresistible from a ratings standpoint, the NBA equivalent of getting Pacino and De Niro back together. The other obvious option was Cleveland, the full-circle ending, the place where it began and the place where LeBron could close the book in front of the fans who have lived every chapter of his career more intensely than anyone else.
But the NBA moves fast, and this offseason turned into a blender. Giannis Antetokounmpo landing in Miami suddenly made South Beach more than just a nostalgia trip. Boston’s head-scratching decision to ship Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia transformed the Sixers into a fascinating, dangerous, high-volatility contender. The landscape shifted so dramatically that what once looked like a simple retirement-tour decision became a full-blown feeding frenzy. Suddenly this was no longer just about where LeBron wanted to say goodbye. This became about which team could convince him that he still had one more meaningful title chase left.
Then Rich Paul grabbed a whiteboard.
On his Game Over podcast with Max Kellerman, Paul sent the speculation machine into hyperdrive by openly breaking down potential LeBron destinations, and while there were plenty of names scattered across the board, five teams found themselves in the center of the conversation: Cleveland, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia… and Minnesota.
Yes, Minnesota.
Cleveland has to be treated seriously because it is Cleveland. We do not need to rehash the entire quarter-century relationship between LeBron and the Cavaliers. Everyone knows the story. The hometown kid. The impossible expectations. The departure. The return. The 2016 title. The block. The parade. If LeBron wants the cleanest storybook ending, Cleveland is sitting there with the lights already dimmed and the montage music cued up. But before anyone files the Cavaliers away as the inevitable choice, it is worth paying close attention to what Paul said about the Knicks. He suggested that if New York had not just won the NBA title, LeBron becoming a Knick would have been a lock.
That is revealing. If the emotional pull of Cleveland were truly the priority, the Knicks would not have been framed that way. If this were only about sentimentality, the Cavaliers would already have the contract inked. Instead, Paul’s comments make it clear that LeBron is still thinking about basketball stakes, competitive opportunity, and legacy architecture. Cleveland can offer a beautiful ending, but the roster fit is not nearly as clean. The Cavaliers are talented, but they needed seven games to survive Toronto, a team that has only become more dangerous after adding Kawhi Leonard. Then Cleveland got absolutely trounced by the Knicks. Adding LeBron would make them better, obviously, but would it really put them over New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Detroit, Boston, Toronto, and whoever comes out of the West? That is much less clear.
Miami has the glamour and the history, and the Giannis acquisition certainly changes the equation. LeBron returning to South Beach with Giannis already in place would be a headline factory. But the Heat gutted so much of the roster to land Antetokounmpo that the depth question becomes impossible to ignore. In today’s NBA, depth is not a luxury. It is oxygen. You cannot survive four rounds with two stars and a rotating cast of guys you hope can hit corner threes every other night. The Knicks are still the Knicks. Philadelphia is suddenly loaded. Detroit remains formidable. Toronto got better. Boston, even weakened, is not disappearing. Miami with Giannis and LeBron would be fascinating, but it is not hard to imagine that roster running out of bodies before it ever gets close to the finish line.
Denver is the basketball nerd answer if you want to create the highest-IQ frontcourt pairing in league history. LeBron next to Nikola Jokic would be absurd from a passing and processing standpoint. Every possession would feel like two grandmasters playing chess while everyone else is still trying to remember how the horsey moves. But the fit has one glaring problem: Denver’s biggest weakness is defense, and defense is no longer LeBron’s calling card at this stage of his career. The Nuggets would score, but could they stop anyone? This is still the same Denver team that was embarrassingly bounced in the first round by a battered Minnesota squad missing Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo. In a West that still includes San Antonio and Oklahoma City, it is hard to view Denver as the best path to another title, even with LeBron.
That leaves the two teams that make the most basketball sense if LeBron wants to compete without simply jumping onto the easiest possible bandwagon. The first is Philadelphia. The Sixers became instantly more dangerous by adding Jaylen Brown, and a lineup featuring Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown, LeBron, and Joel Embiid looks terrifying on a graphic. The East is also the easier road, which matters when you are trying to reach the Finals for an 11th time and your odometer has more miles on it than any player in history. But every Philadelphia argument eventually reaches the same uncomfortable checkpoint: Joel Embiid’s health. Do you really want to pin the final chapter of LeBron’s career on Embiid being upright, mobile, and available for two straight months of playoff basketball? That is a massive gamble. Without Embiid anchoring the middle, that roster becomes much easier to question against New York, let alone against Wembanyama or an Oklahoma City front line featuring Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. And Philadelphia fans, passionate as they are, can turn on a bad situation faster than almost any fan base in sports. We saw how quickly the mood shifted from the joy of beating Boston to the wreckage of getting demolished by New York. That is not exactly a soft landing for the grand finale.
Which brings us to the Timberwolves.
The basketball fit is almost too obvious, which is probably why people are having such a hard time taking it seriously. We are conditioned not to put LeBron James and Minnesota in the same sentence unless the sentence is, “LeBron James is not going to Minnesota.” The franchise does not have the cachet of the Lakers, Celtics, Knicks, Bulls, or Heat. It does not have the warm-weather advantage. It does not have the glamour. It does not have the institutional championship pedigree of San Antonio. The Wolves are an expansion franchise that spent most of its existence wandering through the NBA’s basement with a flashlight and a half-eaten granola bar.
But if you strip away the brand name and actually look at the basketball, the Wolves are tailor-made for LeBron.
They have Anthony Edwards, a top-five player with everything you could want from a modern superstar other than the fully hardened championship killer instinct that comes only from time, scars, and being around people who know exactly what that climb requires. LeBron could help teach him that. The two became fast friends during the 2024 Paris Olympics, and if LeBron wants a young running mate who can keep the basketball world engaged and give the documentary crew more material than they know what to do with, it does not get much better than Ant. Edwards is charismatic, fearless, hilarious, explosive, and still young enough to absorb lessons from someone who has lived every possible version of NBA pressure.
They have LaMelo Ball, newly acquired and wildly talented, a gifted passer who spent years in a losing environment in Charlotte and could benefit enormously from LeBron’s knowledge. LaMelo’s creativity is undeniable, but he has never been in a situation where winning was the daily expectation. LeBron could help shepherd him into that world. He could show him what matters, what does not, when to take risks, when to control the game, and how to translate flash into winning. That kind of mentorship is not some throwaway subplot. It could be franchise-altering.
They have Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert, which matters because LeBron’s defense has slipped with age and Minnesota is better equipped than almost anyone to cover that up. McDaniels can take the toughest perimeter assignment. Gobert can clean up the paint. The Wolves would not need LeBron to be 2013 LeBron defensively. They would need him to be smart, positioned correctly, engaged when it matters, and surrounded by elite defensive infrastructure. That is a much more realistic ask.
A starting five of LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, LeBron James, and Rudy Gobert would be the best starting five in the league. It has creation, size, defense, playmaking, athleticism, experience, and multiple ways to win. LeBron would not be asked to carry the offense every night. He would not be asked to save the franchise by himself. Edwards would remain the alpha dog. Ball would handle a major share of the playmaking. McDaniels and Gobert would provide the defensive backbone. LeBron would be the championship brain, the stabilizer, the veteran leader, the guy who walks into the huddle during a 12-2 run and stops everyone from lighting themselves on fire.
That is exactly what Minnesota has been missing.
And the beauty of this scenario is that it would not be ring chasing in the cheap sense. Joining Oklahoma City, New York, or San Antonio would feel like attaching himself to a finished product. Joining Minnesota would be different. The Wolves are talented enough to win, but they have not won. They have come close, they have made deep runs, and they have repeatedly been just flawed enough to fall short. LeBron would not be coasting into a dynasty. He would be trying to finish the job for a franchise that has never finished it before.
The situation would be akin to Tom Brady going to Tampa Bay. At the time, it felt strange. The greatest quarterback ever leaving the most finely tuned NFL machine of the century to join the Buccaneers, a historically strange franchise wearing digital-clock-number uniforms, seemed off. But Brady looked at the football situation and saw what everyone else took too long to appreciate. Tampa Bay had the receivers, the defense, the coach, and the infrastructure. It simply needed the right quarterback to turn a talented roster into a champion. Brady took the risk, went to a franchise without the same pedigree, and immediately changed its history.
Minnesota’s situation is not identical, but the parallel is sitting right there. The Wolves have the talent. They have the superstar. They have the defense. They have the playmaker. They have the front office. They have an ownership group that includes Alex Rodriguez, a fellow athlete-turned-billionaire who gives LeBron at least one familiar type of power-broker in the room. They have a title-hungry market in the Twin Cities, a place carrying the longest championship drought in North American sports among cities with four major men’s teams. What they do not have is pedigree. What they do not have is the final piece of belief, poise, and championship authority.
LeBron could be that.
Would he actually choose Minnesota? Probably not. Even writing it still feels strange. There are decades of NBA logic telling us that players like LeBron do not pick franchises like the Timberwolves unless something has gone wrong in the simulation. But if LeBron truly means what he says, if the contract is secondary, if weather and market size are secondary, if this is really about basketball fit, meaningful competition, and one last chance to chase a championship the right way, then there is not a better option on the board.
Not Cleveland, if sentimentality is not the top priority.
Not Miami, if depth matters.
Not Denver, if defense matters.
Not Philadelphia, if Embiid’s health is the deciding variable.
Minnesota has the cleanest fit, the clearest role, the highest upside without pure coattail riding, and the most legacy-enhancing challenge available.
You can write on the whiteboard all day. You can circle teams, draw arrows, make columns, debate history, market size, weather, branding, and legacy. But if LeBron James is asking the right basketball questions, the math is pretty clear.
The answer is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Now we wait to see whether common sense actually wins.
However, any teams involved in the highly-touted sweepstakes for James have reportedly been kept “in the dark” and haven’t heard from the superstar or his camp, according to ESPN insider Brian Windhorst.
James’ free agency has dominated the news of the offseason ever since he informed the Lakers he would be leaving the franchise after eight seasons, the longest consecutive tenure of his NBA career.
LeBron James is testing the free agent market this summer and his decision will have league-altering implications. Corey Sipkin for NY Post
Rich Paul, his agent, revealed James is open to joining a contender on the league minimum salary as he searches for happiness in the twilight of his career.
James’ next destination could be the place where he retires — making the free agency decision all the more crucial.
There are reportedly six teams around the league that believe they are in the running to land James, but based on the latest report, there hasn’t been any communication with any finalists.
As six teams are preparing to make final pitches to LeBron James, it appears James has gone silent on the matter. Getty Images
The Philadelphia Sixers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves appear to be the superstar’s suitors.
The free agency process for James has been a mysterious and thrilling one. Last week, Paul discussed the contenders in the James sweepstakes on his podcast “Game Over” with Max Kellerman, which included a total of 10 teams written on a whiteboard.
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