NBA exec says LeBron just blew chance to join Cavs: ‘He made a mistake’

It seems that in all likelihood, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James will still be a member of the iconic franchise for the start of the coming 2025-26 season.

Per The Athletic, the Lakers have received no indication from James or his representatives that he would demand a trade out of Los Angeles or ask the team to buy him out of the last year of his deal.

James exercised his player option with the Lakers for the 2025-26 campaign earlier this offseason and is set to be paid more than $52 million in the coming season.

One anonymous NBA executive thinks that James blew a chance to join the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer by exercising his player option. The person said that James should have declined his player option and signed with the Cavaliers as a free agent.

“I’m not gonna sit here and tell someone to say no to over $50 million, but LeBron is a billionaire, man,” the NBA exec said, per Hoops Wire. “He has enough money and makes enough off the court. If I were in his camp, I would have told him to decline his player option with the Lakers and sign with the Cavs. That would have been the smart play.

“Do you know how dangerous Cleveland would have been? LeBron starting next to Donovan [Mitchell], Evan [Mobley], Jarrett [Allen] and Darius [Garland]? They would have walked to the NBA Finals and it would have been a storybook ending for LeBron to finish his career in Cleveland. I think he made a mistake.”

The Cavaliers have been linked to James in rumors this offseason, but lately, sources have told Hoops Wire that the team would be only interested in James in a buyout situation (a scenario that seems unlikely) and that the squad’s interest in the 40-year-old is “minimal.” There are rules in the way of a hypothetical James trade to the Cavs.

A player with James’ playoff experience maybe would have been the missing piece to the Cavaliers’ championship puzzle in the 2025-26 season. Even though the Cavs have a talented core and deep roster, the core does lack championship pedigree.

It’s unfortunate that James likely shut the door on joining the Cavaliers in time for the coming season by exercising his player option, but the Cavaliers have the star power and depth to vie for the 2026 NBA title without him.

Even if everything points to James not kicking off a third stint in Cleveland in the 2025-26 season, Cavaliers fans should still have nothing but fond thoughts of him. In addition, the door could still be open for James to return to the franchise in the 2026 offseason as a free agent depending on how his future unfolds from here.