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If he wanted to compete and give wtv team he’s on the best chance to win wouldn’t it be smart to opt out and sign for the vet min for slightly above ?

Is it just an ego thing ? The guy has nothing to prove and is already a billionaire.

Money. Lakers arent going balls to the wall to win this year (correctly, imo).

And no billionaire is giving up 50 mill

mademan wrote:Money. Lakers arent going balls to the wall to win this year (correctly, imo).

And no billionaire is giving up 50 mill

Ok maybe not the vet min but why not sign for 25 mil then ? If winning is supposedly paramount why not give your team the best shot.

25 mil ain’t gonna really change much for him he is gonna have generational wealth based on his brand just like Jordan. Not the same level of it of course but in that tier.

He's afraid of having to D up Bronny. Or dunk on his own son. Thanksgiving dinner would never be the same.

Money and ego

Simple

Ego. You don't sign for less than what you're worth

No team is rearranging their roster for Bron at this point. Only one team has cap space to sign him outright (Nets) so yeah why do fans want to do him like that. Opting in makes him tradable to a capped team and gets him paid.

Lebron is no fool.

There are no interested teams who can pay that kind of money for him in the open market.

If opted out, people will say he is rigging the league again for signing near veteran minimum. So he rather take the money and be with his son.

LeBron's ego couldn't handle him making less than the max.

Honestly, top two player ever, but the LeBron circus has become long past stale at this point. He and his camp still act like he's the center of the NBA universe. I can't blame them - when ESPN treats you like royalty for 20 years, it's hard to accept when things have changed.

Then, next year, when he runs out of gas, fans are gonna say "what do you expect from a 40 year old" and not "what do you expect from a max player"?

Legendary career that we will probably never see again, but man, I'm really ready for this train to reach it's final destination. The NBA is ready to move on.

Why would a guy who finished All-League 2nd Team just now fork over $50mil and sign for pennies?

He gave the team an opportunity last offseason where he made it clear he’d take a paycut for certain pieces. They didn’t do much of anything then either.

Since when is the onus on players to take paycuts anyway when ownership isn’t doing what they have to do to field a championship roster?

He earned that money and that was more important than taking much less to sign with a contender.

Based on the recent Klutch and media syncophant comments it certainly appears he wouldn't mind a trade but that salary is really hard to swallow for playoff teams under this CBA.

Just because Lebron wants to win doesn't mean he's going to sign for vet minimum

No capspace. Getting old sucks.

He's got $52 million reasons not to. As much as he wants to win, he's content in LA. If he weren't, he'd go wherever he wanted to go (Golden State, ahem).

He'll gladly stay in LA, that's why, regardless of all the media gimmicks.

Enso wrote:If he wanted to compete and give wtv team he’s on the best chance to win wouldn’t it be smart to opt out and sign for the vet min for slightly above ?

Is it just an ego thing ? The guy has nothing to prove and is already a billionaire.

So, here's my take:

1. LeBron felt he got burned in Miami taking a pay cut in the name of giving the Heat a chance at a better roster, only to see them let guys go to save more money.

2. LeBron & Luka isn't a good fit. Sure they can be great together because they are both great, but Luka isn't the guy to acquire if you're looking to build around LeBron, and I think LeBron understood that from the moment they acquired Luka (and traded away AD), that the Lakers were now going to be focused on building around Luka.

3. So why should LeBron take a massive pay cut for Luka's team?

The obvious rebuttal is "Because it's also LeBron's team, and LeBron wants more chips", but given that LeBron didn't actually take that pay cut, he clearly didn't accept that rebuttal.

So I'd say from LeBron's perspective, he decided that whatever will be will be, but he's not taking a massive cut just to help a franchise focused on a guy who isn't LeBron.

CKB wrote:If opted out, people will say he is rigging the league again for signing near veteran minimum. So he rather take the money and be with his son.

I mean, I get the logic, but why do we expect Luka to want Bronny on his team? If LeBron retired, I'd expect Bronny to be a throw-in in a trade in the near future.

Presuming LeBron stays this year, I'd expect Bronny to stay as well, but I really doubt there's a long-term future for Bronny on the Lakers

AFM wrote:He's afraid of having to D up Bronny. Or dunk on his own son. Thanksgiving dinner would never be the same.

This assumes that the Lakers would be choosing to play Bronny minutes when they are no longer beholden to LeBron, and I kinda doubt they will.

BigGargamel wrote:LeBron's ego couldn't handle him making less than the max.

Honestly, top two player ever, but the LeBron circus has become long past stale at this point. He and his camp still act like he's the center of the NBA universe. I can't blame them - when ESPN treats you like royalty for 20 years, it's hard to accept when things have changed.

Then, next year, when he runs out of gas, fans are gonna say "what do you expect from a 40 year old" and not "what do you expect from a max player"?

Legendary career that we will probably never see again, but man, I'm really ready for this train to reach it's final destination. The NBA is ready to move on.

He is still the center of the NBA universe. Maybe he shouldn’t be, but ESPN and the NBA have made their bed.