Three days ago ESPN's Michael Wilbon assessed the state of play in the NBA and cooked up the diabolical idea that the Golden State Warriors need to trade for LeBron James. Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe and Kendrick Perkins dove headlong into the thought experiment on Tuesday's First Take, with Smith "winning" because he created the most clickable headline.
Sure, James would help the Warriors in their quest to return to the NBA Finals. So far Steve Kerr's team is 14-9 on the year and in possession of the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. Adding either the best or second-best basketball player to ever lace them up—one with still plenty in the tank at age 39—would provide a boost on the court and go down in history as one of the biggest blockbuster swaps in any sport. It would also provide LeBron a more realistic chance at making a deep playoff run because the Warriors are already a more complete team than the Lakers.
On the flip side, it would create a pretty awkward situation as Bronny James, LeBron's son, is on the Lakers' roster.
Smith doesn't want to see any of that, though.
"I don't want to see it because LeBron James does not deserve it," he said. "Absolutely not."
This strong statement elicited a visceral reaction from Sharpe while Perkins simply looked resigned to his fate of hearing why.
.@stephenasmith doesn't want to see LeBron and Steph play on the same team together 👀
— First Take (@FirstTake) December 10, 2024
"I don't want to see it because LeBron James does not deserve it." 😳 pic.twitter.com/aP5Fj6NYmK
Smith's why?
"Stay yo a-- right there in L.A. You won a championship in the bubble. I understand the next year you lost in the first round. You had Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. You had a Kyle Kuzma. You had a Montrezl Harell. You had an Alex Caruso. What do you do? You let all those cats go away because you wanted your boy Russell Westbrook."
Smith pointed out that James derailed the Lakers mobility with a lot of the moves he wanted to make.
"We get so caught up in his greatness as a player that we don't pay enough attention to the power of his influence and the moves that he compels [the Lakers] to make that serves to derail a franchise like he did in Los Angeles."
ESPN's top voice closed by once again telling James to "stay his a-- in California."
It's good television, though people could definitely argue that not enough attention is paid to James the GM. That has been a storyline for over a decade and it's one of the things used to knock him because there's not much else to grab onto. Smith is not wrong in his stance that this specific part of James's power hasn't been maximized.
But it's also tough to imagine what other players would deserve to play alongside Stephen Curry and to compete for a championship. Everyone else in the NBA right now has not done a fraction of the earning and deserving James had done over his incredible career.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Stephen A. Smith: LeBron James Does Not Deserve to Get Traded to the Warriors.
