Report: 76ers, Warriors attempted to add LeBron James at trade deadline

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Romona Shelbourne, the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers attempted to add LeBron James at the trade deadline. In what would have been a blockbuster move, James rejected the idea and will stay with the Los Angeles Lakers for the remainder of the season.

Per the report, Warriors owner Joe Lacob reached out to Lakers owner Jeanie Buss about the possibility of a trade. Buss recommended that Golden State speak to James’ agent, Rich Paul, to figure out if the four-time NBA champion was interested in making a move. This lead to Draymond Green, who is also represented by Paul, to play recruiter and try to get the deal done.

Paul responded the night before the trade deadline, saying James would not be interested in leaving the Lakers. The same sentiment was given a few hours before the deadline when Golden State reached back out, ending the Warriors’ pursuit of James for the time being.

Los Angeles and Golden State are now in a battle to make the playoffs, currently in ninth and 10th place, respectively, in the Western Conference as of Wednesday morning. The two will come back from the NBA All-Star game facing one another on Feb. 22 at the Chase Center. One final regular season meeting on April 9 should have a ton of implications too.

Philadelphia’s pursuit of LeBron James ends in hilarious denial

Philadelphia attempted to add James add the deadline as well, with 76ers GM Daryl Morey calling Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. However, Golden State going after James was considered more “serious” by Wojnarowski and Shelbourne. Morey’s pursuit of a trade resulted in a hilarious denial from Los Angeles.

“After seeing James’ cryptic social media post of an hourglass a week before the trade deadline, Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey called Pelinka to probe on a James trade and was immediately told that James wasn’t available,” the report read. “In fact, Pelinka responded by asking Morey if Joel Embiid was available, sources said. And that ended that brief conversation.”

Morey reportedly also reached out to the Phoenix Suns over the availability of Kevin Durant. Of course, nothing came to fruition regarding the superstar, leaving the 76ers without a blockbuster move at the deadline.

Philadelphia is currently playing without Embiid for an extended period of time, suffering a knee injury and likely being out until the playoffs.