LeBron James: ‘I Thought We Had a Chance’ at Signing Kawhi Leonard

LeBron James figured the Lakers had a good shot at forming a formidable Big Three Anthony Davis and fellow superstar Kawhi Leonard this summer.

It wasn’t meant to be, of course, as Leonard picked the Clippers instead, but James says “that was just as cool.”

AD, meanwhile, adds that he enjoyed the recruitment process was enjoyable even though the outcome was less-than-desirable.

Per ESPN:

James said he believed the Lakers would add Leonard to a team that already featured him and Anthony Davis “because I’m a positive guy,” admitting he envisioned what that Big Three would look like.

“You ask me was I getting excited about it? I don’t get too excited until things actually happen, but I thought we had a chance,” James said. “That’s all you can ask for. We put ourselves in position to have a chance to get [Leonard]. When he went to the Clippers, I thought that was just as cool. It was great for our league, and he had to do what was best for him. And we all respect that.”

Davis said he hasn’t communicated with Leonard since their summer dalliance. And like James, he has moved on from what could have been.

“It was fun just to go through it, for me, with a player like Kawhi, trying to recruit him to come here. It was fun,” Davis said. “We had one conversation, and I think he came out with a statement, or his uncle or something … somebody said he don’t really like all the recruitment and all that stuff, so I felt like I overstepped my boundaries.

“But it was a fun process. I would do it all over.”

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