The King is stirring things up.
LeBron James has never shied away from the spotlight. His recent subliminal messaging has led to a social media storm — and apparently, the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t thrilled about it.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said that LeBron’s being passive-aggressive with LA, and the Lakers are dishing it right back at him.
“By doing what he’s doing, he is absolutely poking the bear… by the way, the Lakers are being passive aggressive back at LeBron,” – @WindhorstESPN on LeBron’s social media activity. pic.twitter.com/LfFXhcaEzH
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) July 8, 2025
What’s the end goal of this game? Is James simply putting pressure on the Lakers to remain aggressive in building a contender? Or is he actually posturing for a way out of Los Angeles? We don’t have anything definitive — and that’s likely by The King’s design.
How far will LBJ take this? That’s the golden question.
Windhorst confirms that if James desperately wanted out of LA, he would not have opted into his contract. But this doesn’t mean that James isn’t playing at something with his social media posts. Jovan Buha, a Lakers’ beat writer, reported that the relationship between James and the Lakers has suffered from this recent drama.
“I wanna be careful with what I say about like Bron’s relationship with the front office or the organization, but I don’t think it’s in like the best place right now to be completely honest,” said Buha. “There’s been no official statement about LeBron opting in. There typically is, especially for a player of that magnitude.”
Trading James under the new CBA is a challenge. While it’s not impossible — the salary restrictions of the second apron make it so that even the most logical landing destination for James (Cleveland) is a difficult one to pull off. When asked about Cleveland’s chances of trading for James, Windhorst said this:
“With a straight face, I can’t say that it’s impossible,” said Windhorst. “But you have to understand, they [Cavs] can’t feasibly trade for him.”
“With a straight face, I can’t say that it’s impossible, but you have to understand, they can’t feasibly trade for him” – @WindhorstESPN on if the Cavs would trade for LeBron James. pic.twitter.com/odch1XhV3G
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) July 8, 2025
This tracks. Trading for James would require any team to gut their depth. This might not be a winning formula in today’s NBA — where lineup versatility has proven to be the most important thing towards winning.
That doesn’t mean James can’t end up in a Cavalier uniform once again. The Cavs can still theoretically trade for him, even if they might not be interested in such a drastic move.
More exciting is the (rather unlikely) possibility that James secures a buyout from the Lakers. In that scenario, Windhorst told ESPN Cleveland that, of course, the Cavs would have interest.
“Yes, I think I can speak for the Cavs organization to say that if LeBron wanted to play at $3 million, they would do that contract,” said Windhorst.
James would instantly become the greatest veteran minimum signing in league history if this happened. That lets you know it’s probably too good to be true.
Yet still, there’s never this much smoke if there isn’t any fire. We’ll be keeping our eyes on Dan Gilbert’s plane and LeBron’s Instagram story for the foreseeable future. You should, too.