Magic Johnson says Lakers shouldn’t trade LeBron James

For really the first time in his career, LeBron James is the center of discussions by experts and analysts regrading whether his team could benefit from trading him away.

After a tumultuous 2021-22 NBA season for the Los Angeles Lakers, there has already been a lot of discussion outside of the organization about whether or not it should trade away James. Though the chances of that actually happening remain incredibly slim, the debates thus far have certainly been interesting.

One person who just weighed in on the debate is all-time Lakers great Magic Johnson. Of course, Johnson not only played for the Lakers for many years, but also served in a front-office position at the onset of James’ own tenure with the team.

That experience combined with his immense NBA IQ gives his words a certain amount of weight.

“LeBron I hope will be a Laker for a long time,” Johnson told TMZ Sports during a brief conversation.

As it stands currently, it looks like James will be a Lakers star as long as he wants to be. As he has done for many years, James is not expected to sign a long-term deal to give himself optimum versatility in terms of what he wants to do going forward.

One thing that is interesting to note is that James does not have a no-trade clause in his contract with the Lakers. That essentially means that if the team wanted to, it could trade James to any team in the NBA without the four-time MVP’s approval.

If the Lakers were to actually deal James away, it would undoubtedly be one of the biggest NBA stories in a long time. The fact that the mere discussion of a potential trade is getting so much airtime while the NBA playoffs are in full swing is a clear sign of that.

In the end, this talk is most likely much ado about nothing. Instead of trading James away, the Lakers front office is much more likely to try to make moves to surround James with talent so that the Lakers can reload and try to rebound from the disappointing season they just endured.