Steph Curry admits LeBron James pairing ‘probably’ won’t happen amid NBA trade rumors | News, results, highlights, stats and rumours

Stephen Curry isn’t closing the door on potentially playing with LeBron James on the same team in the NBA, but he acknowledged that the odds of that happening before one of them retires are low.

Speaking with ESPN’s Malika Andrews on Tuesday’s episode of NBA today (starts at :55 seconds), Curry said a pairing with James “probably” won’t happen.

“Probably not, but I think what-ifs and all those kinds of things, you just let it be, whatever platform people want to talk about it. We just jump,” he said.

The Golden State Warriors have at least explored the possibility of having Curry and James on the same team.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne reported in February that the Warriors tried to convince James and the Los Angeles Lakers to consider a trade, but talks never got anywhere as James’ camp told Golden State governor Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. that their client ” had no interest” in being traded.

James could have forced his way to the Warriors in the offseason when he was a free agent. Golden State tried to make a big splash with a strong push for Paul George that was close to being finalized before talks with the Los Angeles Clippers fell apart.

It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where the Warriors pivoted to James in a potential sign-and-trade with the Lakers for James, if he really wanted to go.

Instead, James chose to stay with the Lakers on one two years, $101.4 million contract with a complete no-trade clause. His deal has a player option for 2025-26, so he could hit the market again next summer if he chooses to do so.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted on the December 11 episode of Stand up that James was among the players on Golden State’s trade radar ahead of the February trade deadline, but also added that James has no interest in being traded.

Aside from some surprising changes from James, the only time fans got to see him team up with Curry in a competitive setting was during the summer when they were on Team USA.

The results were spectacular, with the USA going 6-0 en route to winning a gold medal. Curry scored a combined 60 points in the semifinals and gold medal game. James, who was named MVP of the men’s tournament, posted a triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in semifinal win over Serbia.

As fun as it would be to see what a Curry-James pairing could do, even at this late stage of both their careers, the odds of it happening always felt long before Curry acknowledged it.

Curry and James will play their 53rd head-to-head meeting on Christmas Day when the Warriors host the Lakers at the Chase Center.