​Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green detailed his recruiting pitch to LeBron James on his podcast this past Sunday, hoping to team up with the NBA’s all-time scoring leader next season. James, who has claimed four NBA championships and earned four Most Valuable Player awards, has announced his intention to leave the Los Angeles Lakers, with several teams emerging as plausible destinations for the 41-year-old forward in the near future. Much of the chatter about James potentially joining the Warriors centers on his desire to play alongside longtime friend Stephen Curry and his possible fit with Warriors coach Steve Kerr, particularly given that all three were part of the United States’ gold-medal roster at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Green spent time with James recently and seized the opportunity to make his case for Golden State. “I’d be remiss if I don’t take the opportunity to throw my pitch in there,” Green said. “I’d be crazy if we’re together for x amount of days and at no point am I like, ‘Yo, we need to chop it up. What the hell going on? What are we doing?’” He went on to say that he indeed delivered the pitch and that it was, by his own account, a strong one. “Of course I did that and of course the pitch was crazy. Does it change anything? Does it make anything happen? I don’t know. I hope so.”
Green, who is 36 and has four NBA championships to his name, also played on the United States’ gold-medal teams in both Rio and Tokyo. He acknowledged that he does not believe James has made a final decision about his future club, but he suggested that his words on the podcast might prompt James to consider what life could be like with the Warriors. “With the things I shared in it, it’s definitely going to make the brain work a little bit,” Green said. “I don’t think there’s a decision that has been made, but if there was, it would make you think twice about it.”
James’s interest appears to be widening as he weighs options, with his hometown Cavaliers in Cleveland and the Miami Heat—two teams he has previously led to NBA titles—also in the mix, along with the Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves. The recruiting chatter continues as James contemplates his next destination, with Green’s pitch now a notable talking point in the broader conversation around where the future Hall of Famer might land next season.