00:00So, yes, there was some very big speculation that maybe LeBron James would call it a career with the ownership change, Mark Walter buying in and Jeannie Buss buying out essentially here over the next few months.
00:12But it does appear that, I don't know, Gilbert, not passing on $52 million, right?
00:17Like that's kind of hard to do for anybody at this stage.
00:22Yeah, I don't care how old you are, how many miles you have on your body playing in the NBA.
00:26$52.6 million is hard to turn down.
00:28I think the interesting part now is what's next.
00:31What does this mean?
00:32There's that kind of a little bit luminous statement from him and Rich Paul saying, hey, we want to do what's best to win a championship.
00:39So maybe this means he wants out.
00:42Maybe this is kind of like a small swarming up into a trade request type situation.
00:47But for now, we at least know LeBron James is coming back for year 23.
00:51Yeah, and so do you think that, you know, realistically, I know that the statement here from Rich Paul says that he still believes that they could win a championship.
00:59I mean, I know they have two great players, Gilbert, but to me, you know, can the Lakers win a series in the playoffs?
01:07Yeah, I mean, sure.
01:08But the championship, Gilbert, this does not seem realistic to me.
01:11Yeah, thinking about the Western Conference, thinking about the Thunder are only getting better.
01:17The Mavericks are going to get better than they were last year.
01:19The Rockets have already gotten better.
01:21It's not easy to win in the Western Conference.
01:23And the Lakers, as we learned last year, have a flawed roster.
01:26And we'll get into the free agency situation and the landscape of free agents this year.
01:30But there aren't that many ways that they can improve the roster unless they are able to make some trades.
01:34And I guess now we've learned what the Lakers never ruled them out as far as that goes.
01:38And maybe that's all this is.
01:39Maybe this is LeBron James and his team just putting pressure on the Lakers front office to make the moves they need to get done.
01:44Wouldn't be the first time that they've done that.
01:46But it's very interesting the way they put it that way because it does make it seem like they're opening the door a little bit or leaving open the room for the opportunity for him to go somewhere else.
