Getty LeBron James shoots next to Jalen Brunson and Precious Achiuwa.
A cryptic post on X by LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and the image of James wearing a New York Knicks towel after their February 3 game were enough to get some Knicks fans believing James wanted to play for their team.
But ESPN’s Brian Windhorst threw water on the notion, calling it James’ latest foray into pre-trade deadline “passive aggressive theater.”
“He can just be like, ‘Oh, I just put a towel around my shoulders. What are you talking about? You guys are out of your mind,'” Windhorst said on the February 4 episode of his “The Hoops Collective” podcast. “But this is what he excels at. He computes all this stuff. Of course, he was cognizant and aware he was putting on a towel that said New York Knicks. Why would he mess with the Knicks? Because he was using the Knicks as a tool to pressure the Lakers.”
The night before the Knicks and Lakers met at Madison Square Garden, James responded to an X post from the account of Roll With the Winners featuring only an apple emoji. He replied with emojis of the Statue of Liberty and a king’s crown.
“This is becoming as standard for the first week of February as Punxsutawney Phil, where LeBron is being passive aggressive against his team trying to force a trade,” Windhorst said. “Out of the whole LeBron bag of tricks, leaving the court at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night wearing the Knicks towel … this is the brilliance [of LeBron].”
His cohost Ohm Youngmisuk noted that James showed up to the arena wearing Knicks colors: orange shoes and “a Louis Vuitton jacket that looked very Knick bluish.”
LeBron wearing a Knicks towel for his postgame interview 👀
James Wants the Lakers to Make Moves: Report
The Lakers’ season has not played out the way that many expected it to. As of February 5, Los Angeles was 26-25 and in ninth place in the Western Conference. There has not been a stretch this season where they look like a legitimate championship team.
They rank 20th in NBA.com’s offensive rating at 113.6, 15th in defensive rating at 114.7, and 20th in net rating at -1.1.
No team is facing more pressure to make a significant deal before the February 8 trade deadline, according to CBS Sports, which wrote that James “wants the Lakers to make a move.”
“It’s just hard to believe that anyone currently on the market can turn them into legitimate title contenders even after last season’s surprise run to the Western Conference Finals,” Sam Quinn wrote in a February 5 story. “We’re talking about a team that has by and large had its two best players healthy all season and still ranks average or worse on both offense and defense.”
The New York Knicks Are a Desirable Location
Despite the 113-105 loss to the Lakers, the Knicks are a desirable location. They have a true star in Jalen Brunson, the sixth-ranked defense in basketball and a stretch in which they’ve won 9 of their last 10. The Knicks look to just be getting started and that could intrigue a player similar to James in the future.
Windhorst added that the Knicks are a place players want to play moving forward.
“The Knicks are going to be very attractive going forward… The Knicks had to be an option going forward,” Windhorst said. “Whatever hatchet they may have buried, it’s almost like the Knicks need Klutch clients eventually whoever it is, it doesn’t have to be LeBron… Somebody is going to want to play in New York. Somebody is going to look at Jalen Brunson and say, ‘You know that wasn’t the worst decision in the world.’”