Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James raised a few eyebrows when he recently named the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry as the player he would like to play with.
The four-time NBA champion made the comment on his show, “The Shop: Uninterrupted,” earlier in April — after the Lakers had already lost their chance to qualify for the playoffs.
Curry and James have shown they have a tremendous amount of respect for each other on multiple occasions in the past. Most recently, James called Curry a “once-in-a-lifetime player” when the Warriors All-Star became the all-time leader in 3-pointers. Curry then said James’ greatness and longevity are “legendary” when the 37-year-old surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list.
In regards to James’ comments about potentially teaming up in the future, Curry brought up his admiration for the Lakers forward that dates back to his college years. And although the 34-year-old said there’s a degree of ‘curiosity’ about what a potential partnership with James would look like, he said the idea of playing on the same team belongs to the fantasy basketball world, per The Volume:
It’s surreal because I will never be so far removed from this time [when] I was in Detroit, playing in the Sweet 16 game. And this dude is maybe in his fourth or fifth year in the league, and he’s coming to my game, like, supporting and cheering, and doing all that stuff. Even at the place he was at in his career, as you know, the future superstar and like, he’s a Hall-of-Famer. Potentially the greatest of all time. The fact that we’re 13 years removed and he’s saying that, it’s still crazy. I don’t know if people knew this, he gave me a jersey when I was in college at Davidson and I still have it on the wall at my parents’ when I was back in Charlotte. And he wrote it like to ‘King of basketball and in North Carolina’ and signed it and all that. I will never be too far removed from where I came from in terms of this journey. So that’s dope. That’s the surreal part. The other part is like, okay, if you take a fantasy draft and you’re like building a team out, and you got what Bron can do and the way that I can shoot the ball… obviously there’s like curiosity. Like, what would that look like? But also, there’s the realism of like, that’s why I said I’m good right now. It’s just, you can never let your mind go from what you know is your situation, what is your moment, your time, and who I’ve been rocking with from day one. So that’s my best answer because it’s fantasy, it’s wild, but there’s respect and appreciation, or just surrealness because of where I came from and how we first interacted back when I was in college. But if this is 2K, that’d be pretty lethal.
There have been rumors about James recruiting Curry to the Lakers last year, which would even be addressed by Warriors owner Joe Lacob. However, Curry signed a four-year contract extension with Golden State later that summer.
James wants to win more championships with Lakers
During his exit interview, James said he wants to win more NBA titles with the Lakers — even though he’s already fulfilled his promise to bring the Larry O’Brien trophy back to L.A.
“I came here to win a championship and I want to win more,” James said.
“I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, but I’m still hungry for more. I’m confident that this organization wants the same. It’s what this organization has always been about.”
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