Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne gave the masses an impression of the Los Angeles Lakers drifting further and further apart from LeBron James. One of the major tokens that would have spoken to that was James being kept in the dark about the team's sale. That proved not to be the case.
ESPN applied a major correction to the original reporting of the inside look of the situation in Los Angeles. After suggesting James was unaware of the record-breaking sale, unlike Luka Doncic, that notion was walked back.
The new update wrote, "After the publication of this article, sources said James was notified of the sale, via his representation. But he did not post any public acknowledgement."
It turns out the disconnect between LeBron and ownership that would have been assumed to exist based off the original information is not as present as it initially seemed. This gives a lot more credence to the idea that this James story may be getting played up for fan's interest.
Slow offseason exacerbating LeBron James drama in Los Angeles
It is very easy to get caught up in the rumor mill and the insider information during the NBA offseason. It gets made a ton easier when that summer has lacked the fireworks of previous ones.
This free agency period has been slow, by contrast to a handful of previous years. There was the shocking Damian Lillard release. Of course, the the Kevin Durant trade in the lead-up to the NBA Draft sparked a ton of interest as well. However, on the whole, the offseason has just not been the spectacle that others have offered in the past.
Perhaps that is where the need for something big like a potential James trade arose from. It would be foolish to rule out the possibility entirely. Even so, it just does not scream of the same type of urgency it otherwise could have.
James was in attendance at the Lakers' NBA Summer League game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday. Dave McMenamin offered LeBron an opportunity to speak in an interview. The four-time champion said there was 'nothing to talk about.'
With LeBron James at the Lakers game tonight, I asked him if he would like to speak to me about his future with the franchise. “I ain’t got nothing to talk about,” he said. My report for ESPN from Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/sFRgCYHmqw
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 13, 2025
McMenamin dove into some of the major inciting incidents that caused the chaos narrative in Los Angeles, dispelling a ton of the speculation in the process. The situation is certainly not without its intrigue. However, the scale at which this is has been portrayed previously does sound a little misleading because of those previous iterations.
James is still a Laker, and the 21-time All-NBA member may not be getting rushed out of the door just yet. As McMenamin said in his report, this is the point where everyone will be forced to wait.