"You A Fkn Lie!!" - LeBron Wasted No Time Turning Down A "Report" That He Was Behind The Luka Trade After Growing Frustrated With Anthony Davis

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Whenever a big trade goes down involving a team that currently employs LeBron James, he's always going to be part of the story. Considering that's how it's been for the last few decades, it's no surprise that once all this Luka/AD stuff dropped that almost immediately we were going to hear about LeBron. It took about 2.2 seconds for every outlet on the planet to quickly push the narrative that LeBron had no idea this was happening

It was interesting that a lot of media people with ties back to Klutch all starting singing the same tune, but whatever. Even though it sounds weird to say, I can actually somewhat believe this. You have to remember the motivation behind this trade from the Mavs side. They needed this to be top secret and without a single leak. So if you're Klutch (AD and LeBron's agent), I don't think you can run it by LeBron because what if he says no? What if he prefers to have AD because he knows how important he is defensively? He could then leak it out and the Mavs are screwed. So it's not totally inconceivable to think that with this trade in particular, even LeBron didn't know about it. 

The thing is when it comes to LeBron and trades, you're not only going to get the narrative that he's pulling all the strings. At a time like this when everyone is trying to get that dopamine hit by going viral by "reporting" this trade, you can sometimes take things too far. It's not only about LeBron calling the shots, it's also a perfect time to start up some rumors that he was actually unhappy with AD and there was some beef there. You could almost set your watch to something like that happening

That's why it's fitting that when it came to hearing from LeBron on this topic, we only got one response to a particular tweet/"report"

See, this is why Twitter can never go away. It's mostly a disaster, but I do enjoy that athletes have the ability to respond to shit like this. Now, do you believe LeBron here? Who knows. But what we do know is this is how narratives start. We almost never see LeBron address stuff like this, but maybe at this point of his career he's in an ultimate "fuck it" mode and is just letting things fly. That's something I could get behind as someone who enjoys the drama of the NBA. 

Then again, LeBron is pretty famous for lying about the stupidest shit, so who knows what to believe. I tend to think that the idea LeBron/AD having a rift is a bit of a stretch though. To me, that feels like trying to pile onto a situation in hopes it goes viral and gets aggregated. A classic move in the content game.

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Listen, the last thing I ever want to do is stick up or make an excuse for LeBron. I'm just looking at the facts of the trade based on what we know. To me this felt more like Dallas was the aggressor and needed to get out of the Luka business ASAP, and the Lakers were there to say "sure", probably thinking it was a prank or something. It's not as if anyone is reporting the Lakers were shopping AD this trade deadline because LeBron was done with him. Wouldn't that be the case if there was beef there? AD is who the Mavs wanted for this next wave of their roster so they went out and got him. When you look at it that way, you can see why it's a little weird to think this was all a LeBron-motivated trade. I'm not even sure he does it if we're being honest. From a basketball standpoint, the Lakers do now have a lot more questions. How do they expect to get through Nikola Jokic if that's put in front of them in a playoff series (the current 4/5 matchup)? 

This isn't denying Luka's talent, it's mostly just the reality of what the Lakers roster looks like right now and where they are now vulnerable considering their potential playoff path. I can't imagine this is the frontcourt they enter the playoffs with, so maybe Danny Ainge is about to get a ransom for Walker Kessler? Maybe Rob Williams? I guess it all depends on who LeBron wants.