It’s the middle of the NBA conference finals, but while he is still an active player in the NBA, and probably for many years after he’s gone, LeBron James is always going to be a topic of conversation.
And while it might not be at the level of the Dallas Cowboys, sports media will always find a way to talk about LeBron, whether the people actually doing the talking want to or not.
Cue Friday’s edition of First Take, where the conversation turned to LeBron. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst had reported earlier in the morning that James, as a pending free agent, wants the Lakers to recruit him to come back to the team by proving their franchise plan to him. James himself said he may take his time deciding what comes next and may not make his next move until August.
Kendrick Perkins wasn’t buying it and thinks it’s just a ploy for LeBron to get talked about while he’s at home watching the playoffs on television.
“We took the bait. He threw his fishing pole out there… He caught the attention that he wanted.” @KendrickPerkins on LeBron James talking about his future in the NBA 😮 pic.twitter.com/3goY2eI23L
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 22, 2026
“We took the bait. He threw his fishing pole out there, let the bait just hang, and he caught some big fish. He caught the attention that he wanted while his ass is sitting at home,” Perkins said. “I’ve been knowing Bron all my life, he moves like the president. He already has a plan in place. He knows what he’s doing. He knows what his next move is, he knows what the counter is going to be.”
“He knows where he wants to go, where he wants to be, if he wants to be on the Lakers. He already knows that. This right here was just throwing the bait out to get some more national media attention real quick to get people talking about it, and here we are talking about it again,” Perkins added.
It’s an interesting opinion given Perk’s connections throughout the game. But does LeBron James really need to leak something like this to the media so that we don’t forget about him during the conference finals? This is arguably the single most transcendent athlete of the 2000s. He doesn’t necessarily need to trick the media to start talking about him.
There could be some very good reasons for this coming out now. Maybe LeBron James is sending a message to the Lakers or to any other team about his preferred destinations and outcomes for next season. But getting ESPN to talk about him? He does that by just simply existing.
