Rumors

Jake Fischer: Personally, I think Ben Simmons would be interesting in Minnesota, but I haven’t heard that they have interest in him.

YouTube

Mike Trudell: Darius Bazley, who’s had a strong summer for the Lakers as he battles to get back on an NBA roster in the fall, went down in the 2nd Q with an injury and had to be carted off to the locker room. We’ll look for an update after the game.

Twitter

Nine-time NBA All-Star Damian Lillard agreed to a three-year, $42 million contract to return to the Portland Trail Blazers, sources told ESPN on Thursday. Lillard's deal includes a player option in 2027-28 and a no-trade clause. Lillard joins the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James as the only NBA players with a true no-trade clause in their contracts.

ESPN

While discussing his childhood hero, Kasparas Jakučionis’ eyes lit up and his smile widened. The Miami Heat rookie already appeared in a good mood when he discussed overcoming early shooting struggles in the California Classic with strong performances in Las Vegas Summer League. When he reflected on watching LeBron James growing up, it seems that Jakučionis will most look forward to when the Heat play the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2024-25 season. “When I was little, he was my hero,” Jakučionis told Sportskeeda about James. “He’s a complete basketball player. He does everything for the team to win. He’s a winning guy. He’s involving other players in the game. He can score whenever he wants. He defends. Basically, he is the true leader.”

SportsKeeda

When asked if it was important to represent “Black and brown” in his basketball ownership, Rodriguez told Andscape: “Yes. That is what I do. I represent both. And the reason why I am here is because I saw Magic [Johnson] wearing a suit and tie. I said, ‘That was a guy I can relate with. He looks like me. He came from the bottom like me.’ “I can’t put myself in his shoes. But when Magic [became a Los Angeles Lakers minority owner], it kind of ignited my vision. ‘Why not me? Why not you? Why not us?’ I’d like to affect one person to say, ‘This is a guy who is a former athlete who has been through some ups and downs, course-corrected and is someone who can lead others to their dreams.”

Andscape

Naomi Osaka and LeBron James have each reached the pinnacle of their respective sports. And now, the two will be partnering for an upcoming series on how athletes spend their time away from their respective sports, experiencing their home cities during their off days. Osaka’s Hana Kuma production company and James’ Uninterrupted will come together, along with UltraBoom Media, the company behind the Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown series, on the new project called Off Day that will be aired on the Uninterrupted YouTube channel.

Awful Announcing

"I think we have to start thinking that this could be his last year in the league," ESPN's Dave McMenamin said. "Rich Paul [James' agent] told me there was no extension talk, because they didn't ask for an extension. They didn't broach the subject. Now, you could say, why didn't the Lakers offer it? Sure, you could. But Paul's point to me was this wasn't a point of tension. "It's not something that they were pursuing. So I think you look at it as, yeah, there's a very limited time remaining in his career," McMenamin continued. "We kinda already knew that. We knew that, basically, since he reached 20 years in the league, he's gone into every offseason contemplating retirement."

BasketNews

Again, team and league sources said no discussions about a buyout have occurred between the Lakers and James, the option merely being a pathway discussed by rival teams as they survey the situation.

New York Times

Bobby Marks: With Bradley Beal being waived, LeBron James is the only player in the NBA with a true no trade clause. Eligibility: 8 years in the NBA and 4 years with the current team A player is not allowed to add a NTC in an extension.

x.com

Personnel across several other teams -- including the Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers, sources said -- pursued Bradley Beal and had extensive conversations with him and Bartelstein in recent weeks.

ESPN

One team linked to James — the Dallas Mavericks — does not have interest in gutting its roster to match James’ salary in a trade, a team source told The Athletic. And if there were a potentially better trade out there for the Lakers — one that would create cap flexibility while also addressing some of the team’s other needs — James has a full no-trade clause in his contract and could veto any deal that would send him somewhere he doesn’t want to go.

New York Times

In the sections filled with employees from other teams, scouts and executives around the NBA buzzed with speculation about where else James might play, tossing around trade and buyout scenarios that, league and team sources told The Athletic, have never been discussed between James and the Lakers.

New York Times

Amid the constant speculation recently about his future, both the Lakers and people close to the NBA’s all-time leading scorer expect that he will be with the organization for training camp once the season begins this fall, league sources told The Athletic. Those same sources said the Lakers have received no indication from James or his representatives that he would request a trade or ask to be bought out of the final year of his contract, which will be his eighth season with the Lakers, the longest consecutive stretch spent with one organization in his career.

New York Times

Those same league and team sources pointed out that Paul has made similar comments in the past, when James was playing for either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Lakers, when it was time to renegotiate a contract. The difference in this case: James had a deadline of June 29 to pick up his option or decline it and become a free agent, and there was only one team — the rebuilding Brooklyn Nets — with the cap space to even approach James’ salary.

New York Times