LeBron James missed his first game of the season Sunday due to a sore foot, but he wasn’t expected to be out long — and the Lakers can’t afford for him to be.
It looks as if LeBron will also miss this Friday’s Lakers game in Minnesota, reports Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
It would give James, who missed Sunday’s game with foot soreness, eight days in between games if he returns Sunday against Memphis.
He also has been away from the Lakers for personal reasons, coach J.J. Redick told reporters.
“LeBron is not with the team right now. He’s out for personal reasons, excused absence,” Redick said.
All that adds up to making it seem highly unlikely LeBron travels with the Lakers to Minnesota for Friday’s game.
This all comes when trade speculation has bubbled up around LeBron, with reports that the Golden State Warriors and other teams are monitoring LeBron’s situation to see if he might want out of Los Angeles. Don’t bet on a trade coming to pass. First, LeBron has a no-trade clause and completely controls the process. He can’t be traded unless he asks for a trade, and the Lakers would never trade him unless he demanded it because he’s too important to their business (he’s the one that fills the stands at high ticket prices, the one sponsors flock to be near, the one that sells the jerseys and merchandise). LeBron has had chances to leave, including this summer when he was a free agent, and instead he not only re-signed with the Lakers — and offered to take a discount to help bring in more talent to the roster — he asked for that no-trade clause.
The Lakers drafted Bronny James because of LeBron — and because Bronny has potential as a prospect — and gave Bronny a guaranteed NBA contract, not a two-way. There is zero chance LeBron would walk away from playing in the same organization with his son. Which brings us to the final hurdle in all of this: Even if LeBron decided he wanted to try and recapture the magic of the Paris Olympics and team up with Stephen Curry, this is a complicated trade to pull off because luxury tax apron restrictions hem in both the Lakers and Warriors, neither can take on more money in a trade than they are sending out. Matching a trade nearly dollar for dollar becomes that much more difficult when LeBron demands Bronny be part of the deal and come with him, which would very likely be a stipulation.
LeBron’s not going anywhere. Probably not even to Minnesota this weekend.
