A question was posed to Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick Thursday during Los Angeles Lakers media day that said the quiet part out loud.
The reporter asked if Pelinka and Redick have had conversations with LeBron James about, in the reporter’s words, “the transition that we are seeing take place from this kind of going from LeBron’s team to Luka [Dončić]’s team.”
Pelinka, the Lakers’ president of basketball operations and general manager, turned to Redick, his newly-extended head coach, and Redick stepped up to answer the question that arrived about 16 minutes into the news conference.
“I’ve talked to LeBron fairly frequently and had two great in-person meetings with him,” Redick said.
“One, he finally made it out to The Hamptons, so he and I had dinner in Sag Harbor right around free agency, and then I was able to spend some time with him here in LA a couple of weeks ago. And I came away from that thinking that he’s in a great spot mentally, and I know he’s going to give us his absolute best.”
Redick and James co-hosted the “Mind the Game” podcast before Redick was hired as his head coach last June. In their first year together on the Lakers — Redick coaching at 40 years old, and James playing at 40 years old — Los Angeles went 50-32 and secured the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference before falling in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first round of the playoffs.
But in early February, the Lakers pulled off one of the most surprising trades in sports history, acquiring Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks. Then, in August, the Lakers signed the 26-year-old Dončić to a three-year, $165 million max extension.
Meanwhile, according to an ESPN report from July 11, the Lakers didn’t offer James an extension or give him a heads-up about the sale of the franchise from the Buss family to Mark Walter, whereas Dončić reportedly was clued in about the transaction.
Although James picked up his $52.6 million player option in June, the four-time NBA MVP’s future with the Lakers has remained a hot topic this offseason.
Pelinka was asked earlier in Thursday’s news conference how James being in contract year affects the Lakers’ team-building process.
“The first thing we want to do in terms of LeBron and his future is just give him absolute respect to choose his story with his family in terms of how many years he’s going to continue to play,” Pelinka said.
“He’s earned that right, and he’s the best one to talk about that in terms of how many years he’d like to play. But we were very intentional this summer in terms of the pieces we added with Luka and LeBron — once LeBron opted in — making sure that they had the necessary pieces around them to be on a really competitive, strong team. And we built into that and for that.”
A follow-up question was directed Pelinka’s way, inquiring for the GM’s feelings about the possibility of James wanting to play for the Lakers beyond the 2025-26 campaign.
“We would love if LeBron’s story would be to retire as a Laker,” Pelinka said, doubling down on his Aug. 2 comments.
“That’d be a positive story.”
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