LeBron James denying reports of trade to Warriors doesn’t sit well with fans

The Golden State Warriors enquired with the Los Angeles Lakers about trading for LeBron James before the trade deadline.

LeBron James denying reports of trade to Warriors doesn’t sit well with fans

LeBron James denied having any knowledge about the trade to the Golden State Warriors (Image via NBA on TNT/Lakers/X)

LeBron James and the Golden State Warriors trade talks were the talk of the town of the basketball universe for some time. Tonight is the first time the Los Angeles Lakers superstar was asked about the news directly on national television. And he denied having any knowledge of the trade until he heard it on the news. This blatant denial did not sit well with fans.

LeBron James was a guest during the All-Star edition of Inside the NBA on TNT tonight in Indianapolis. While talking to the crew, host Ernie Johnson asked James about the trade talks between the Warriors and the Lakers hierarchy about a potential trade for James to the Bay Area. James responded;

I actually heard about it when everybody else heard about it.

James, denying any knowledge of the trade, was dumbfounding for fans. After all, everyone in the basketball universe knows how deep James’ involvement is in personnel discussions.

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Warriors owner Joe Lacob directly called Jeanie Buss about LeBron James’ availability in a trade before the deadline on February 8th. Buss directed Lacob to speak with James’ agent Rich Paul about James’ interest in the trade. Even Draymond Green called Paul to convince James to move to the Bay Area.

But Paul confirmed to both of them that James had no interest in being traded to the Warriors. LeBron James said that the trade talks happened behind the scenes without his involvement. It might seem odd that James is flatly denying the rumors despite Paul himself almost confirming the same a couple of days after the trade deadline.

Basketball fans not liking LeBron James’ denial in trade rumors

News about James’ possible move to San Fransisco came from solid sources. Multiple insiders reported that there were conversations between the Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. After all, for the 20-time All-Star to flatly deny that he knew anything about it was called out by fans.

LeBron James was a trade target for the Golden State Warriors before the trade deadline
LeBron James was a trade target for the Golden State Warriors before the trade deadline (image via NBA/X)

They did not hold back when the clipping of this conversation went online. They quickly gave their two cents about what they thought about James’ denial. Check out some of their reactions below;

LeBron James has chosen to take the denial route to deflect the spotlight off him. But in doing so, he just made it worse. Had he given a different answer, fans would have been more forgiving in their reactions.

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