OverDrive - Woike on James’ future in LA, what summer league in Vegas looks like, and how Bronny has looked in Vegas

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Dan Woike, Lakers writer for The Athletic, on LeBron James’ future in LA, what summer league in Vegas looks like, and how Bronny James has looked in Vegas.

Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Bryan Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada.

The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made inada now on i have radio dot c a or the free i heart radio app he's uh... a writer for the athletic he's been covering the lakers in the l.a. sports scene for a long time has been on the show many times

those great to see a man have them back on his dan wikie a do it then as i felt like that uh... that segue was perfect for me about the guy doesn't take care of himself is it in the bar I think I felt very seen absolutely man you're not alone believe me after a week especially after a week in Vegas guys oh my gosh what is that summer like what does that seem like I love that they have it in Vegas and now it's just it's a staple and I love how all the players want to be there too, to quote unquote, support the young players. But I don't think they'd be doing it if it was in Detroit.

Right? If it was somewhere else, I'm not sure the other players are showing up. Yeah, it's, it's a lot. I would say like being there on the ground, it's a lot of fun. I would say like being there on the ground. It's a lot of fun. And if you walk around like Particularly like the wind hotel right is sort of like one of the unofficial hubs And summer league and like you just sponsor and I mean like I remember one year a couple years ago like watching like coach K Play like $20 hands of video poker like seeing something like that Like it's it's that kind of a scene, right? We just sort of like inevitably bump into somebody interesting

and have an interesting conversation way too early in the morning or way too late at night, depending on your perspective. And it's really, really bad for your body and for your sleep and for your rhythms like yesterday. I was I was a mess like I I saw Austin Reeves and some of the Laker players in the back after the game he looked at me and he was just like he's like Dan have you been on a seven-day bender and I couldn't lie I just couldn't lie to him I said no yeah but that's I'm really throwing yeah it was

rough I'm home I'm on the other side of it guys everything's great perfect well year two of brawny James With summer league like does that still pop like what what is what is what kind of headlines come from? brawny James in year two Yeah, really different ones. I think you know year one right like it was he doesn't belong here He's only here because of his dad there was like a either the people that were there were like way too excited, or the people that were against him were way too negative.

Like there was no, no balance at all in sort of like what this player was or what this player can be. I think in year two, after, you know, it really like was like mostly out of the spotlight in Los Angeles, you know, considering everything else that happened with the Lakers, like the first month of the season was a big deal.

But you know, by the time the fires happened and you know, the trade for Anthony David or the Luka Dacic trade and the playoff, I like, you know, it kind of really fades to the background in the story of the season. I think, you know, it kind of really fades to the background and the story of the season. I think, you know, hey, guys, guess what? Turns out, Brian, you haven't got better. Um, you know, you can watch the clips, six to 10 last night.

You know, playing at pace, playing with confidence, with the ball in his hand. It was fun for me to hear him kind of go at it with like Jeremy Fears and like talk some trash and like find his voice and like you know have some confidence like I think I think that was it was encouraging and and yeah people are still excited people are still you know willing to go to extremes on him but I think you you sit with scouts and you know now it's like the conversations

about him have like started to center more on like, is there a world in which this guy can can play in the NBA and the jury's still out, you know, on that for sure. Like nobody feels like fully invested on that. I think in the people that I talked to, but undoubtedly people watch him and it's like he's viable. He's a viable bet. And I think that there is a there's more consensus on sort of like whether or not he belongs to me in this position after a year of improvement than a year prior. Well, so Dan year one obviously was a bit awkward, I guess, with his dad. And now it feels like it's just going to get 10 times more awkward. Having some time like to think through all this stuff with LeBron, what do you think

his actual motivation is? Like what do you think? What is the? Like, what do you think, what is the aim here with everything that has been floating around? I mean, I think he wants the best situation possible, right? If I had to like, try to put myself inside his head. And I do think that there's just a level of uncertainty now, in kind of where he is at this stage in his career that like I mean this is this is all unprecedented. Never before in league history has there been a player in year 23 this good. Like that's a fact that just hasn't happened.

No one knows what to do with it. There's no playbook for it. Never has a player at this stage of his career, you know, never. I'm sorry. Never has there been someone who's been the main character the way LeBron James has been the main character also found themselves now in a situation where the organization is saying like, hey, by the way, like the next guy's here. Like he's here. We got to look at it like and it's not even personal. Like nobody can, I mean, I haven't spoken to anybody around the NBA who thinks that like the pivot

to Luka Dacic or a Luka Dacic-led Lakers team is a bad idea relative to the situation there. And LeBron James is gonna be 41 years old in December. You know, so it's just, I think it's uncomfortable a little bit. And I think LeBron has wanted, you wanted, wants to be in a competitive situation, wants the Lakers to be making moves that get them better in the short term. The Lakers are trying to take both a short term and long term approach and there's a

little push pull there. So who has to make that move? Is it LeBron who's going to be vocal internally to continue to make those moves? Or is it Lakers who say, hey, we know you're not going to be here very much longer, maybe a year, whatever it is? Who has to take that first step? Or does Lakers have to shake their pills a little bit and say, hey, we're going forward with this group?

I mean, I think that it's one of those things that I think other people want them to say it, but it's just sort of unsaid. Like he's under contract, right? Like he opted into his contract. There have not been any credible trade discussions. There haven't been any other like he's on the Lakers, right? He was there for two games. He's interacting with people like that. That's that's the read on it. When I speak to people like that's just sort of where it's at now. Would it be easier if there was some sort of summit or something like that where they were to kind of all sign off on the future of the organization? Yeah, but I but I generally think guys that it's just a situation right now where, you know, this is a road that LeBron has walked before and when it comes to off

seasons and trade deadlines and stuff like that, like asserting a little pressure on the teams that he's went there, sometimes a lot of pressure to improve. I will say like, I think the Lakers, despite maybe not winning headlines this summer, I think they're better on paper in a couple different ways. And I think LeBron knows that. So I mean, I'm not currently expecting some, you know, great sort of show of like, I don't think he's gonna like do like a Superman meme or something like that and have like the Lakers jersey on and post on Instagram tomorrow. I don't think he's gonna like do like a Superman meme and or something like that and have like the Lakers Jersey on a post on Instagram

I don't think that's gonna happen. I Think that it's just way more likely that we see him on media day in Los Angeles But that just seems like the path this is going down with Dan Wyke of the athletics So if I were to give you these two options LeBron James will will play the final game of his career in a Laker uniform or the field? Who will you take? That's such a good question and I hate you for asking it. I think it's just that's a tough one. I think I would take the Lakers. I think I beyond this year, it's hard to know.

It's just hard to know. I believe being around LeBron James since he's been in Los Angeles, I think he has surprised himself at how good he is able how good he's been this long. Right. good he is able, how good he's been this long. Right, and I do sort of think it reminds me a little bit of like the Seinfeld episode where, where Kramer's in the car and the, they're gonna take it all the way down to E. They just wanted to see like how fast the needle

can go past the E and like no one really knows where it's gonna stop. There, like there is an element to this, right? Like, like when I've talked to LeBron or when I've heard LeBron talk about retirement, it's basically been like when I'm not able, you know, physically and mentally to play the game at the level that I want to play it at. Well, like this dude was just all NBA second team a year ago.

You know what I mean? Like for a month and a half, two months in the middle of the season, playing some of the best defensive basketball of his life. You know, the Lakers had the number one defense for like a real stretch of the season. And they did a lot of it with Anthony Davis, not on the team. They did some of it with Luca notch each on the team. And it was like it was because of LeBron. Now his body maybe didn't respond to that. And that's why he had the groin injury late in the season. That's maybe you know, related to why the knee injury haven't those more fluky but like

it could all be you know based on sort of load over time and things like that. I just it's just hard to know how much longer he can go and how much longer he wants to go and if he wanted to play three more years like I don't doubt that he could do it. Do I think that there are three more max contracts waiting for him in Los Angeles? I don't know. And I think that is very much to be determined based on fit with Luka Dacic. Like I said, that is the direction the organization is going. It is going in a Luka Dacic direction. And if LeBron James next to Luka Dacic proves to make the most sense, then I think that's, and he wants to keep playing and he wants to be in Los Angeles, then I think that's the road that

they would go down. Great question, though, I wish I had a better answer. No, it's a great one, and I mean, I think you could look at it, like the last game of this season, and then the last game of his career, like there's multiple layers to it in terms of trying to predict what's gonna happen with LeBron, and I'm curious, you know,

in terms of his Laker legacy, like the Lakers are one of those handful of teams in American sports that have such a rich history of winning and superstardom. And you know, when I think of them, I think Kobe, I think Magic, I think Kareem, and that's from afar. I'm in Toronto. I'm not from LA.

I don't have any association with the city or the history of the fan base. So I'm curious, has LeBron cemented his legacy as a Laker or can he still move up? And if so, like where is he on the on the list of tiers in terms of like revered and great Lakers from a Lakers perspective, not like an objective NBA perspective? Sure, sure. It's really interesting. I mean, I think like, you know, the names you mentioned, like particularly Magic and Kobe, right Kobe, they were only Lakers and very much were of the city. We saw the way Los Angeles responded to the tragedies that surrounded both of them, both

Magic Johnson's retirement and Kobe Bryant's unfortunate and untimely death. I think when it comes to LeBron and his place with the Lakers, what's really interesting about it was that still the majority of his career, he was a villain in LA because like he was the guy going up against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. I will throw a stat at you provided he plays with the Lakers this season. He'll have played there eight straight years, which is the longest single stretch he's been with an organization. Wow. In his career. That's nuts. He was seven with Cleveland the first time around, I believe.

So it's been a while here in Los Angeles and he's played a lot of basketball for the Lakers. Like now time is crazy. Like everything after 2020 just feels like, you know, like, I don't know, simultaneously, both a hundred years ago and yesterday. And I think, you know, him winning his title in a way, like he wasn't able to like stand in the middle

of the Coliseum, like Kobe Bryant and hold up the trophy and have, you know, the adoration of the city poured onto him. You know, he didn't get that moment because the championship came in the bubble. I think impacts maybe some of this stuff a little bit. My hunch is that it'll just be the kind of thing that, you know, like most legacy conversations,

like 10, 15 years from now, I think we'll think very fondly of this time as a Laker. I think right now as we're in it, it's much easier to look at, you know, the way Kobe and Magic and some of the lifelong Lakers and the ties they had with the fan base. Like there is a thing, I love the story about, about kind of LeBron James. And I always try to remember it guys. Um, I was covering the Chargers briefly here in Los Angeles and,

and Derwin James had just been drafted and he was in a, in a press conference in the back kind of doing like the fake like basketball thing where he's like shooting an imaginary basketball. And I was trying to ingratiate with myself and I told him I'd covered the NBA and I asked him what his favorite team was. He said, Oh, my favorite team is LeBron James. And I think like that is a thing that exists in a real way. And so there are like kind of like two roads running with him in a way where I think more

so with Kobe and certainly with Magic League, it was Laker fans, right? And this is some sort of combination of the two. How long before you think it becomes Lucas Town? Is that next year, two years? That's a great question too. I think we're in store for a big Luka Dacic season. And there are things at play here that in LA, I think we're still sort of learning. We saw the way from afar, the way that Dallas and Luka Dacic sort of went together and the feelings and the emotions

that poured out with him leaving. We've seen elements of it in LA as he started to, like he made a really big donation to fire recovery efforts. He paid for a Kobe Bryant mural to be restored. I think a really huge understated thing in here is he's a Spanish speaking, he speaks very fluent Spanish in Los Angeles, which, you know, should be really exciting for the Lakers of a very large Spanish speaking fan base to connect in that way. And like, I don't know, he's a magician, too, right? And a city that like fell in love with Magic Johnson, like they're like he would throw

he throws passes and stuff that way. And apparently now like any like good LA person is like trimmed down really fast for like a big role. Like, so like, it trimmed down really fast for like a big role. Like so like there is like he's gotten like movie star shape. So I think this is a really big year. And I think obviously though the way to win over Los Angeles more than any other is winning. And I'm not totally sure how close the Lakers are to a championship right now. That'll be the final step. But I think, you know, provided he signs his extension to some degree here later in the summer that like, you know,

the seeds have been planted for a really strong relationship between a charismatic on court star and a city that loves those types of players. Yeah, the Lakers are always going to be in the middle of everything, man. Even up here, we're talking about it mid-July. But with Luca there, LeBron with possibly one year left, Brawny possibly making an impact on the team this season. It sounds like it's going to be a pretty captivating one for you and everyone that covers the team. He is Dan Wyke of the Athletic.

Always appreciate you finding time for us, especially coming off Vegas. Thank you for doing that, Dan. Guys, this is sobering for me. Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons.

I'm from the Glorious Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada, the station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required, just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeart Radio app.