LeBron James linked with shock move away from the Lakers... just one week after opting into $53m deal in LA
The 40-year-old will play at least another season in the NBA after triggering the one-year-deal, though the move has been followed by trade speculation following a cryptic statement from his agent Rich Paul.
And the Mavericks are reportedly interested in James - though they wouldn't be willing to part with assets in a trade.
ESPN's Dave McMenamin said on ESPN Radio 710 that the Mavs would be interested in James only if he was bought out by the Lakers.
That scenario seems extremely far-fetched, as LA would likely want to recoup some assets in return for the four-time MVP.
Either way, James going to Dallas would see him reunite with his friends and ex- teammates Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
Davis was part of the blockbuster Luka Doncic trade in February, which also sent Max Christie to Dallas and a first-round pick back to LA.
James was also overheard seemingly talking about the Knicks during a recent dinner in Manhattan.
While eating at Manhattan Omakase spot FlyFish Club, James could be heard in the background of a video taken by Instagram user @smallzthevillain saying he 'ain't mad looking at New York,' which fans interpreted as him viewing the Knicks as a potential trade destination.
He was also overheard discussing how his wife Savannah wants him to 'f***ing retire in the next year or so.'
While James decided to pick up his Lakers option, the announcement was met with his agent Paul telling ESPN that his client 'values a realistic chance of winning it all.'
'LeBron wants to compete for a championship,' Paul told ESPN. 'He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with [controlling owner] Jeanie [Buss] and [GM] Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.
'Dallas—I'm told—they would only be interested in LeBron in a buyout situation.'
(🎥/ @espn) #NBA pic.twitter.com/lqePqhTLbC
— Swish Access (@SwishAccess) July 3, 2025
'We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what's best for him.'
The Lakers finished third in the Western Conference with a 50-32 record following their blockbuster acquisition of Doncic, but looked outmatched in the first round of the playoffs as they fell to the Timberwolves in five games.
James certainly showed his age at times during the season, but ultimately finished with impressive numbers of 24.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds nonetheless.
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Their connection goes back at least to the early 2000s, when they were rumored to be in a relationship, though neither party ever admitted to a romance. The relationship rumors appear to have shot into overdrive after Diddy and Naomi posed together for Vogue in 2001, not long after his split from Jennifer Lopez. The catwalk star denied at the time that she and the rapper were an item. Although they have been pictured throughout the years, Naomi appears to have stayed silent in the wake of the sexual misconduct accusations leveled against Diddy and the subsequent federal charges filed against him. However, after Diddy's ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a bombshell lawsuit in which she accused him of raping her, forcing her to have sex with male prostitutes and abusing her for years, both Naomi and another attendee of his 2023 birthday party, Janet Jackson, deleted their photos from the event from social media. Jennifer Lopez Diddy's former girlfriend Jennifer Lopez's silence about him is somewhat understandable, as they had a difficult breakup. However, the two were reported to have maintained friendly relations in subsequent years. The two began dating in 1999 after they met on the set of her music video for If You Had My Love, and he coproduced her album On The 6. In December of that year, was with Diddy when he and his entourage were involved in an argument at a club in Manhattan that escalated to gunshots that injured three people. Jennifer, Diddy and his bodyguard fled the club before police intercepted them and found a stolen gun in the car, and one of the victims from the club shooting claimed that it was Diddy who shot her. Both he and his then-girlfriend were arrested in the aftermath, but Jennifer was soon released and charges against her were dropped. Diddy was eventually acquitted of gun possession charges, though a rapper in his entourage was convicted of gun possession and assault. However, no one was ever charged for the actual shootings. The trial put a stain on Diddy and Jennifer's relationship, and they eventually broke up, reportedly on poor terms, in 2001, though they were reported to have subsequently developed a friendship. Jennifer later accused Diddy of having cheated on her during the relationship, though she admitted that it was only a suspicion and she never caught him in the act or found incontrovertible proof. 'I just knew. He'd say he was going to a club for a couple of hours and then never came back that night,' she told Vibe in 2003. In her 2024 documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Jennifer spoke about an ex who had been abusive to her, though she refused to name them. 'There were people in my life who said "I love you" and then didn't do things that were kind of in line with the word "love." Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun,' she said. 'I mean, I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God, but I've definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things. Rough. Disrespectful,' she added in the documentary, which was released in February 2024, months after Cassie's bombshell lawsuit was filed and settled, and a month before Diddy's mansions were raided by the FBI. Lil' Kim Diddy and Lil' Kim's friendship dates to the 1990s, when she traveled in his circles after being signed to his friend Biggie Smalls' record label. But the two had a falling out after Kim was sentenced to a year in prison for perjury in 2005. 'I'm bothered by his actions, because I rolled with Puffy to the bitter end, and still would have rolled with him,' she told MTV News. 'Puffy never came to see me in prison, not one time. He didn't write me a letter. He didn't say, "Here's a number for Kim to call," not one time.' Their friendship took another hit when she cut ties with him after she reportedly felt that he didn't come to her defense during a feud with Nicki Minaj. But the two later worked out their difference, and Lil' Kim was among the guests at Diddy's birthday party in November 2023. But when it came to the sexual misconduct accusations levied against him and the criminal charges filed against him, Kim appears to have remained silent. Mariah Carey Diddy's friend and former collaborator Mariah Carey was among his A-list pals whose names were mentioned earlier in his racketeering and sex-trafficking trial, though she wasn't accused of any wrongdoing. Carey famously collaborated with Diddy for her 1997 song Honey. He helped produce the song, which she wrote, and he added his own vocals to a subsequent remix version and appeared in her music video for the song. The two stayed chummy and were pictured in each other's company in subsequent years. Mariah was given a chance to respond to the allegations against Diddy in a November 2024 interview with the Los Angeles Times, but she mostly downplayed his contributes to her Butterfly single. Although she admitted that it was now 'weird' to hear him on the track, she said that 'Honey was more a representation of me than anybody else, and I know that. 'The other people that were involved — or maybe the other person that we're talking about — wasn't really that involved.' Usher Diddy served as a mentor of sorts to a young Usher, who was only 13 when the rapper became his legal guardian. He went on to produce Usher's self-titled 1994 debut album. Despite having lived with Diddy and having remained friends with him for years, Usher has so far stayed silent about the accusations against his former guardian. However, in a 2004 Rolling Stone interview, Usher said that Diddy had introduced him to 'a totally different set of s*** — sex, specifically.' 'There was always girls around,' he said of Diddy's home during the period they were close. 'You'd open a door and see somebody doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen.' Although it wasn't clear how old Usher was at the time, he said during his 35th birthday celebrations in 2013: 'I was introduced to everything by Puff Daddy when I was only 15 — parties, women, sex and drugs. 'I've had a taste of it but I'd never let it take me over,' he added, and he clarified in a Howard Stern interview from 2016 that he wouldn't pass on any of the lessons from Diddy to his children. Ashton Kutcher Ashton Kutcher was regularly spotted hanging out with Diddy in the early 2000s. In a 2019 Hot Ones interview, Ashton said that he got to know the rapper after he ordered him not to try to prank him on his reality series Punk'd. The show was made by MTV, which also produced Diddy's series Making The Band, which brought the two into each other's orbits. 'I was like, "I don't know what to tell you, everybody is on the table." That started our conversation. We became fast friends and we used to just hang out, watch football together,' he said. In the same interview, he coyly mentioned Diddy's infamous parties without sharing many details. 'I've got a lot I can't tell,' he joked while eating hot wings. 'Can't tell that one either,' he said while 'cycling through' his memories of the parties. 'Diddy party stories, man, that was some weird memory lane thing.' But Ashton hasn't spoken publicly about his connection to Diddy since the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in late 2023.
