Shams Charania of ESPN dropped the news the NBA world is waiting for when he said on Monday that every day LeBron James is "inching closer and closer to a decision." You don't say?! Joking aside, he at least mentioned the Golden State Warriors as one of the "leading suitors" for the 41-year-old.
Last week, Charania said it appeared as if Cleveland, Miami, and Philadelphia were in the lead for LeBron. Maybe those three are still at the top of his list (if they ever were). Between that and James spending time in Northeast Ohio, the Cavaliers felt like the runaway favorites, leaving the Warriors in the dust.
Well, about that.
On Saturday, Jake Fischer said on a Bleacher Report livestream that he believed Golden State was "still as involved as any team" in the James pursuit. On Sunday, the Warriors agreed to hire Frank Vogel, who led LeBron and the Lakers to a title in 2020, as an associate head coach under Steve Kerr, just in case the other connections between James and the organization weren't enough.
Don't count Golden State out.
Discussing a LeBron James decision inching closer for NBA Today: pic.twitter.com/cin2LRhZii
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 13, 2026
Charania names Warriors as one of the leaders for LeBron
This saga shouldn't drag on much longer, as by now, James should at least have an idea of what he wants to do. Maybe he's thinking loud and hard about the pitch Draymond Green gave him when the two spent time together in Puerto Rico recently, not that he needed another reason to join the Warriors or anything.
Golden State has several factors working in its favor, such as San Francisco's proximity to Los Angeles, and of course, Steph Curry. It'd be iconic for LeBron to finish his career with the Warriors, and clearly, he thinks so, too. At least to some extent, or they wouldn't be in the running for him.
As Charania said, all that's left for LeBron is to decide his next steps, now that he has all of the necessary information (those voice memos must have been entertaining). He doesn't need to go back and listen to anything to know what life would look like for him in the Bay. All he has to do is think about what it was like to get to play with the greatest shooter of all time in Paris in 2024.
That should do it, right? It would at least be a driving factor.
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