Why a LeBron-Warriors pairing would have been "dope" for Draymond Green
Golden State's owner and front office made a last-minute push to acquire LeBron James before the 2024 NBA trade deadline, with Draymond Green personally reaching out to James's agent to help recruit him, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Golden State Warriors made an unsuccessful eleventh-hour attempt to trade for LeBron James ahead of the 2024 NBA trade deadline, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Warriors owner Joe Lacob directly contacted Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss to gauge James's availability, and after being rebuffed, general manager Mike Dunleavy separately reached out to Lakers GM Rob Pelinka with a similar inquiry.
Draymond Green, who like James is a client of Klutch Sports, took his own step to help the effort. Per Wojnarowski's reporting, Green "sent Paul a text message offering his help in attempting to recruit James to the Warriors" on the day of the deadline itself -- a direct appeal to Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, James's longtime agent.
Why the pairing appealed to Golden State
The appeal of a Warriors-James pairing centered on putting James alongside Stephen Curry, uniting two of the sport's premier players on a team already built around ball movement and shooting. Green's willingness to personally lobby Paul underscored how seriously some inside the organization treated the possibility, even on a compressed trade-deadline timeline that left little room to construct an actual trade package.
Why it didn't happen
Rich Paul told Warriors leadership that James had no interest in relocating and preferred to remain with the Lakers in Los Angeles, according to Wojnarowski. James held a $51.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season and, per the same reporting, remained focused on his future with the Lakers, which closed off the possibility for that trade deadline. The specific assets Golden State discussed offering were not detailed in the available reporting.
How the approach unfolded, hour by hour
ESPN's reporting described the pursuit as compressed into roughly a 24-hour window before the deadline. Lacob's outreach to Buss was triggered by James's own public comments around that time, which the Warriors' ownership interpreted as a possible opening -- Lacob reportedly wanted to know whether James's apparent frustration with the Lakers' season could be read as a signal he might welcome a trade. Buss did not negotiate herself; instead she redirected Lacob to Paul, who then delivered the same answer to both the ownership and front-office channels: James wanted to stay in Los Angeles. Separately, Dunleavy's call to Pelinka got the same response from the Lakers' front office, confirming that neither James's inner circle nor the Lakers organization had any appetite for a deal.
Why Golden State moved despite the long odds
Wojnarowski's reporting framed the attempt as driven by James's continued level of play even at age 39, which the Warriors saw as a chance to extend the competitive window of a core built around Curry before it closed. That motivation -- pairing two of the sport's premier players while both could still perform at an elite level -- was the same logic Green cited in his personal outreach to Paul, even though the front office ultimately came away with the same rejection at every level it tried.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by NBC Sports Bay Area and ESPN. It restores a story originally published on this site in February 2024; figures are as reported at the time.