LeBron James will be staying with the Los Angeles Lakers after picking up his $52.6 million player option for next season. This is not a surprising development for many reasons, one of which may be just how difficult it would be to trade the 40-year-old superstar even if that was a desired option.
ESPN NBA insider Bobby Marks and Brian Windhorst reacted to the development on Monday's Get Up, where Marks was asked whether a trade market for James even exists.
"To be sensitive to LeBron, whose considered one of the greatest of all time, there isn't," Marks said. "He's making $53 million, he's in the last year of his contract. He's 40 years old and I talked to numerous teams yesterday and asked that same question: would you give up basically the farm—basically you would have to give up four or five players to go get LeBron James for one year—and the unanimous answer was no, they wouldnt."
.@BobbyMarks42 says "there isn't" a trade market for LeBron James 😯 pic.twitter.com/aMLV1WNbNy
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) June 30, 2025
"The stakes change a lot if LeBron James ever became a free agent and did some type of buyout in Los Angeles," Marks added. "There you would have 29 teams lined up for him."
Marks dove into one potential suitor, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who might have to part for six players for a single season of James, which does not seem like smart business.
Whether or not James will finish his career with the Lakers or write the final chapter elsewhere remains to be seen. But it's sounding like a blockbuster trade involving him is very, very unlikely unless a franchise wants to put all their chips on the table for a single year.
More NBA on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN NBA Insider Explains Why There's No Trade Market for LeBron James.
