Hawks GM believes LeBron James leaked report of his Warriors interest
If you were among those who thought LeBron James was behind the leaked report that he would be open to meeting with the Warriors in free agency — pressuring the Cleveland Cavaliers and other potential suitors to improve their rosters and needling Golden State all at once — you are not alone.
Former Warriors assistant general manager and current Atlanta Hawks GM Travis Schlenk felt the same way, apparently. He explained on Atlanta’s CBS Radio 92.9 The Game on Thursday, via CBS Sports:
“I would be really, really surprised if LeBron went to Golden State.
“The one thing I will say about Mr. James: He is the master at using the media to get whatever story he wants out there. He’s perfected the art of the social-media game. I think that those things were probably leaked by them, by Mr. James and his camp.
“I don’t see a universe where that happens.”
For the record, James called the report “nonsense,” Warriors counterpart Kevin Durant dubbed it “bulls***” and just about everyone else with any sense considered it ridiculous. Not only would Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert have to sign off on a sign-and-trade, which seems implausible, but LeBron would have to be willing to risk tainting his legacy. That scenario is just not happening.
That’s beside the point. It’s one thing for us to point the finger at James for sending messages to the front office through the media. It’s another for an active general manager to take that stance publicly.
If this is also the belief among Cleveland’s management, the divide between James and the Cavaliers brass that The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd reported on Tuesday will only widen. Among the details in that report was the fact that the Cavs are no longer consulting James on basketball decisions, including the Kyrie Irving trade, which was leaked just 20 minutes after the team finally informed the four-time MVP. James also reportedly cursed out a pair of executives during that heated team meeting last month.
So, yeah, things aren’t going great in Cleveland, and we’re sure to hear more leaked stories about it.
More from Yahoo Sports NBA:
– – – – – – –
Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
