I really don't see what Rich Paul or Lebron would get out of Paul lying and misleading teams, fans & the media especially when he's been pretty open about a lot of the process.Monster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2026 6:33 pmI have seen nothing in the career of Lebron that suggests he would do anything like this. Lebron has a PG mentality as a person he isn't gonna delay everything for months just to gain some sort of competitive advantage while screwing over multiple franchises some (if not all) of whom has people he has pretty strong relationships with. Plus I don't think he wants to screw the league over since they are waiting for his decision to do their scheduling. It's a dastardly plan though and fun that you came up with it!FNG wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2026 5:58 pmCould be, phenom. Another thought came to me today. It shouldn’t take this long to make his decision, and we know lebron is competitive and wants to win. I suspect he made his decision within days of informing the Lakers he wasn’t returning, and he has told the team he’s going there. But he and the team know the other 4 teams…all pretty good teams he would consider competitors…are hamstrung until he makes his move and cant go to plan B. I think LeBron and the winning team will announce his decision just a few days before training camps start, hoping the plan B options are mostly gone by then,Phenom wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2026 4:58 pm Rich Paul told Perk that LeBron has made his mind up already only to change it.
This tells me he wants to pick teams like Cleveland, Golden State and Miami because they are the "obvious" fits but can't shake the fact that Minnesota and maybe Philly are the only ones that make sense. Once he accepts the fact that Minnesota is the best choice it will be over.
And this is coming from an avowed non-conspiracy guy!
I think it's much more likely that what Rich Paul said is right. Lebron has several excellent options and picking one is difficult. I'd take more than a couple days to decide if I was him. If it was an easy decision he would have made it already and the team he picked would be able to make whatever moves they wanted to to build and tweak the roster.
To me, as others have pointed out, the longer this plays out the more likely he's REALLY considering a team like the Wolves (outside immediate comfort zone of CLE/MIA/Cali) and I think he's very much been torn based on Rich Paul saying he's been changing his mind. I think this would be a hard decision for any of us if we were in his exact shoes.
If I'm Lebron, I LOVE the idea of ending my career back at home in CLE. But then I see playing with Steph in GS, playing with a young talented team with Ant/LaMelo and their youth ties & biggest legacy raiser, MIA if the relationships there are really strong, PHI if he loves the idea of playing with Maxey, etc.
It's possible CLE is his default and he's just giving himself time to see if the pull of another team is greater than the idea of playing at home or he's making a decision and letting himself sit in that for a few days to see how it feels. Like really letting a decision sink in until he's ready to commit.
PS: we also now know LaMelo has also talked to him recently.
