Free agency chaos is entering its second week and the LeBron James sweepstakes still doesn’t have a winner. But the man at the center of it all is back in the gym, which may or may not mean anything.
James posted an Instagram story showing himself doing some kind of brutal workout that only he could make look routine. The clip, which Bleacher Report and other outlets picked up, shows LeBron moving through drills with the kind of intensity that suggests he’s getting serious about his next chapter. Or maybe he just felt like sweating.
It’s impossible to know with him. That’s kind of the point.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the six teams still in the mix for James have gone days without hearing a direct word from LeBron or his camp. They’ve made contact, sure. But nothing has come back.
“The teams that were interested in LeBron, like they had made contact and whatever, and they hadn’t heard anything. And they’re like, well, ‘we don’t know what to make of it’.… The teams are kind of in the dark, all kind of waiting, and they weren’t hearing anything. And so they were just like, well, maybe it’s Cleveland, but I don’t know if anybody is hearing anything,” Windhorst said on his podcast.
So six teams are sitting around guessing. That’s not nothing, but it’s not exactly a signal either.
Who’s still in the race
The list of teams that think they have a real shot includes the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, and Philadelphia 76ers. Some of those make more sense than others on paper, but in free agency logic doesn’t always win.
Over the weekend, the Cavs emerged as the betting favorite in some circles. A bunch of that speculation came from LeBron spending most of the previous week in Cleveland with old friends and former teammates. People saw that and filled in the blanks. But the Cavs haven’t confirmed anything, and neither has James.
If you’re one of those six teams, the gym video might actually be good news. It means the guy is working. He’s not on vacation. He’s putting in reps. But nobody knows if that work is being done with a specific destination in mind or if James is just staying sharp while he decides.
LeBron’s free agency has never been quiet, but this round feels different. The announcement that he wouldn’t return to the Lakers kicked everything off. Then his agent Rich Paul reportedly put together a whiteboard listing interested teams, which is the kind of detail that usually stays behind closed doors. It leaked anyway, because of course it did.
All of that drama made the first week entertaining for fans. Now the second week is here and the only real update is that LeBron is in a gym somewhere doing something hard. That’s not much to go on. But in a league where teams are holding their breath, it’s all they’ve got.
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