21-time All-Star Los Angeles Lakers power forward LeBron James picked up his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season, but an insider thinks he may still be interested in linking up with the Dallas Mavericks.
James’ interest is fairly understandable. After all, two of the 6-foot-9 superstar’s former All-Star championship teammates, ex-Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving and former Los Angeles Lakers power forward/center Anthony Davis, are rostered there, along with four-time James Finals opponent Klay Thompson.
The Mavericks also recently nabbed the draft rights to select former Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft.
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, James may still have at least some level of interest in ditching the Lakers.
Los Angeles is clearly prioritizing ex-Mavericks All-NBA First Team guard Luka Doncic, whom the team acquired for a package headlined by Davis, plus a 2029 first-round draft pick and role player shooting guard Max Christie in a blockbuster midseason trade last year.
With Doncic and James at the helm, the Lakers went 50-32 and earned the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed, but were trounced in five quick games by the Minnesota Timberwolves in a first round playoff series.
Weekend Read: What’s next for LeBron James.
Covered from 23 different angles as his record 23rd NBA season draws near: https://t.co/7jtGTdKSma pic.twitter.com/5fiVQl2DcC
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 26, 2025
“I believe that James does have some genuine curiosity about playing in Dallas,” Stein posits. “Bear in mind that he is extremely settled off the floor in Los Angeles. It has been his family’s primary home base for the past seven years and he is building a new home in Beverly Hills. To play elsewhere at this stage of his life and career could well require a landing spot that can provide a special level of comfort to take him away from all that.”
“The Mavericks would seem to be uniquely suited to offer that with so many people in Dallas he already knows well, from general manager Nico Harrison and coach Jason Kidd to former teammates Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving,” Stein notes.
Kidd was a former assistant coach with James on the title-winning 2019-20 Lakers. Then-Los Angeles head coach Frank Vogel is now an assistant in Dallas under Kidd. Harrison was a longtime Nike executive.
Still, Stein cautions that the Mavericks do not want to offload current rotation players for James’ expiring contract. Instead, they’d be intrigued were he to reach a buyout agreement with the club — or perhaps they’d wait until he hits free agency next summer.
“As I’ve been reporting for weeks: They have not tried to trade for him and do not want to try to trade for him if it means surrendering multiple rotation pillars for a player who turns 41 in December. If James suddenly became a free agent they could sign to a minimum deal, that’s a different discussion. I believe strongly that they would want him in that scenario.”
Stein cautions, though, that James still holds too much present-day value to Los Angeles for a buyout to be likely.
“Do you think the Lakers will just give up on this season and buy him out in August or September and set James up to walk to Dallas or Golden State or New York? I don’t.”
READ MORE: Mavericks make bold decision on possible LeBron James trade
