The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to be one of the most active teams ahead of the NBA trade deadline. They’ve been linked to almost every player who could potentially become available before February 8th.

Darvin Ham’s have struggled to find consistency this season, alternating big wins with blowout losses. Then, LeBron James’ cryptic tweet of a sand clock emoji sounded off all alarms around the fan base.

Some speculated that James could mean that his time in Los Angeles was running out. Even if that wasn’t the case, some analysts talked about the possibility of the team looking to move on from him by trading him and recouping as many assets as they could.

LeBron James Won’t Be Traded, Says Agent Rich Paul

That’s why Brian Windhorst of ESPN had to reach out to Rich Paul, LeBron’s agent and CEO of Klutch Sports, who confirmed that his stellar client isn’t going anywhere any time soon:

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

“LeBron James will remain with the Los Angeles Lakers, agent Rich Paul made clear to ESPN on Friday,” wrote Windhorst. ‘LeBron won’t be traded, and we aren’t asking to be,’ Paul said in reaction to some growing speculation about James’ future ahead of next week’s trade deadline.”

Despite all speculation, that never seemed like a realistic possibility. LeBron’s older son, Bronny, is currently playing at USC, and his production company is also based in Los Angeles. He has a player option in his contract at the end of the season, so he could still walk away if he wanted.

With that in mind, chances are LeBron was just trying to put some pressure on the front office to make some moves and trade some of the teammates. Ironically, he had claimed that he ‘didn’t play fantasy basketball’ just a week before that tweet.

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