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While the Golden State Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler this past deadline to bolster the team's efforts to once again compete in the Western Conference, the team previously tried to acquire Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. As the Warriors have high aspirations this season, fans have wondered what it would look like if James teamed up with Stephen Curry as he spoke to ESPN about his team gunning for the Ohio native.
The talks of Golden State's interest in trading for James happened before the 2024 trade deadline when they inquired to Los Angeles about the possibility. While nothing would materialize from it, Curry spoke from his point of view about what he thought of when he first heard of James maybe being traded according to ESPN.
“Like any talented high-IQ basketball player, whether it's LeBron, whether it's KD, whether it's me, whether it's AD, whoever you put him on any team, you should be able to figure it out,” Curry said. “That's as far as it got from a year ago. Because it sounded outlandish when I first heard about it. I never thought he'd leave the Lakers. And I obviously said I never really wanted to leave here.”
James isn't the only superstar the team went after as even with this past deadline, the Warriors were focused on Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in a possible reunion.
“You need everybody to be all bought in no matter what the history you have,” Curry told ESPN about his talk with Durant. “And I respect KD. It's all about having peace of mind and happiness.”
LeBron James wasn't the only star the Warriors went after
However, it was reported that Durant didn't want to go as Curry spoke about the conversation with his former teammate.
“Neither one of us controlled that [trade] situation,” Curry continued. “It's just you want to make sure somebody wants to be somewhere. Other than that, I'm not trying to convince anybody to be somewhere they don't want to be.”
There is no doubt that James and Curry on the Warriors could've been exciting since the two had been rivals that met in countless NBA Finals on opposite sides. James would describe the chase of both for the title to ESPN and how there was a competitive dislike.
“I mean, s—, when you're in a dogfight and there's one guy that's trying to stop you from reaching your goals, you're going to dislike that person,” James said. “He disliked me, I disliked him because we were both fighting for what the f— we wanted, and that's the Larry O'Brien trophy.”
Back to Durant, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was honest when expressing his understanding of Durant's disapproval of being traded back to his former team where he won two championships.
“I don't blame Kevin one bit for not wanting to rerun things here,” Kerr said to ESPN. “He took so much s— for like, ‘Oh, you're jumping on the bandwagon' [when he signed with Golden State as a free agent in 2016]. And then he's Finals MVP two years in a row. It's like he still gets criticized. So why would he want to face all that B.S. again?”
Since Golden State acquired Butler, they have been 3-1 heading into the All-Star break.