Lakers Seriously Considered Blockbuster Trade Reuniting LeBron With Former Teammate

LeBron James needed some fresh younger legs this past season.

The Lakers entire team was way past their prime, and it showed as the season progressed. Kyrie Irving spent most of the beginning of the 2021-22 NBA season at home. This forced Irving to consider his future, and as he explained on The ETCs with Kevin Durant podcast, he even worried at points that he might get traded.

“It was only the journey to enjoy at that point, because I was sitting at home and — I don’t even want to say sitting at home, I was wondering at home what my future was going to look like, you know? Whether I was going to be traded, whether I was going to be released, whether I was going to get the opportunity to be on another team, how I was going to spin this for myself in a positive way,” Irving said.

According to SNY’s Ian Begley, the Lakers “discussed the possibility” of acquiring Kyrie Irving while the Brooklyn Nets point guard was sitting out due to COVID-19 vaccination mandates in New York.

“Several outlets, including SNY, reported that the Nets had been open to talking to teams about potential Irving trades during that time. Obviously, nothing came to fruition. But some members of the Lakers organization discussed the possibility of trading for Irving during that stretch of the season, sources say.

The deal would have obviously reunited Irving with LeBron James. It’s unclear if the Lakers reached any internal consensus on Irving at the time. And it doesn’t really matter at this point. Given where Brooklyn is at the moment, it would be surprising if the club didn’t sign Irving to a multi-year extension/new contract this summer as it continues to pursue a title.”

A few Knicks/Nets notes on Rudy Gobert, the Raptors and other topics: https://t.co/vfAJi8jRuT

— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) May 7, 2022

The idea of reuniting James with Irving sounds great.

Irving and James won an NBA championship together way back in Cleveland in 2016, but Irving forced a trade the following season.

Clearly Kyrie didn’t like playing with LeBron too much.

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