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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff WriterOct 14, 2024, 06:42 PM ET
- Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
- Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — After facing off against one another for years in the NBA Finals, LeBron James and Stephen Curry teamed up for a common goal this summer — winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics for Team USA. The question is, will they ever be teammates again?
“I have no idea,” James said Monday.
The league’s all-time leading scorer was asked about the all-time leader in 3-pointers ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ and Golden State Warriors‘ two preseason games this week — Tuesday in Las Vegas and Friday in San Francisco.
While James didn’t pour cold water on the idea, the chances of them pairing together on an NBA court — other than the All-Star Game — are remote. In February, the 39-year-old James said he hoped to finish his career with the Lakers. Since then, both he and the organization further pledged their commitment to one another, with L.A. drafting James’ son, Bronny James, and LeBron inking a two-year, $104 million contract extension.
The 36-year-old Curry, meanwhile, signed a one-year contract extension for $62.6 million in August that will keep him in Golden State through the 2026-27 season — which will be his 18th in the league, all with the same franchise.
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“I’ve always said I want to be a Warrior for life,” Curry told Andscape in July. “At this stage in my career, I feel like that’s possible.”
The Warriors inquired about trading for James leading up to the trade deadline last season, sources told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, however nothing materialized after Lakers governor Jeanie Buss directed Golden State to speak with James’ longtime agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. So in all likelihood, James and Curry — who played 22 Finals games against one another over a four-year span from 2015 to 2018 — might only have that 11-0 run together with Team USA this summer to cherish as teammates.
“It was everything and more,” James said. “I was super excited to be able to finally team up with him in a win-or-die type atmosphere. That’s what it was, being a part of the Olympics. It was everything that I dreamed of and aspired to want to be a part of that team, along with Steph. Great memories. Something that I’ll remember from my basketball career for the rest of my life, for sure.”
The memories of James’ triple-double and second-half defense on Nikola Jokic in the semifinals against Serbia and Curry’s flurries of 3s to close out France in the title game are fresher than their clashes with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Warriors — or even in subsequent years between L.A. and Golden State in the postseason.
“I understand what Steph has done for this game,” James said. “I understand what he’s done for his organization, what he’s done for the community, people all over the world. Just by his approach to the game and how he is as a man. How he is as a family man. How he is as a husband, a dad, a son, all that stuff.
“So when you have that type of respect for somebody and then you get to be around them every day and you see the way they work and how they treat their craft, it’s a pretty cool thing. You’re able to just respect that and not take it for granted.”
While James was happy to discuss Curry, he was less keen on answering a question about how training camp is going for Bronny — specifically all the attention he has generated despite totaling just 2 points and 5 turnovers in 35 minutes in the preseason so far.
“You got to ask him,” LeBron James said after practice Monday. “That’s a grown man. Ask him how he’s handling it. And then we go from there. But he’s a grown man. He’s a professional. He can handle all this pressure himself. But we know why — good or bad why — the attention is here.”
