Lakers president Magic Johnson has made no secret of his desire to chase star free agents.
The team’s current players sometimes struggled with the resulting trade rumors and uncertainty about their own situations.
One player in particular caught their attention – LeBron James, according to Jordan Clarkson, whom the Lakers traded to the Cavaliers on deadline day.
Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:Clarkson said when he was a player for the Lakers, his teammates used to talk about James coming there as a free agent, which he could be free to do this summer if he opts out of his contract with the Cavs.
“I wouldn’t say like management and the coaches or nobody, but in the locker room people talk when they see what’s going on,” Clarkson said, after the Cavs beat the Denver Nuggets 113-108. “That’s probably the only thing, people talk in the locker room.”
I said all along LeBron-Lakers rumors were driven in part by people enjoying analyzing the possibility. It’s tantalizing.
Of course, Lakers players couldn’t resist the discussion. There must have been mixed emotions – the excitement of possibly playing with LeBron and the understanding you might be cast aside to make room for him.
Clarkson surely felt some of that when he got sent from sunny and bigger Los Angeles to cold and smaller Cleveland to play with LeBron. Maybe when the Cavs visit the Lakers on Sunday, he can relay to his former teammates what it has been like.
