LeBron James said he wanted to give the Lakers something back by taking nearly $3 million less in his contract to keep the team from reaching the second apron of the salary cap.
“Like when you’re in a relationship — I’ve been married for a while now. I’ve been with my wife since high school — there’s certain things that you have to do sometimes,” James said Sunday. “… You have to understand that in a relationship, for it to work … both parties have to work together.”
“The fact that I can be in a position where I can protect the franchise under the second apron, understanding that this new thing is very difficult for a lot of teams as they try to improve, whatever the case may be. I’ve been with the Lakers for seven years. I’m totally fine with (a pay cut).”
By staying under the second apron, the Lakers are able to be more flexible in how they can improve the roster, perhaps most importantly by giving the franchise the ability to trade multiple players for a single player, though they still can’t get back more money than they send in a deal.
James praised his experience with Team USA on the second day of training camp.
“It’s surreal to see that we’re on the same team,” James said. “Every time I see a clip, like if I go on social media and I see a clip of us walking into the building… I’m like, man, this is just crazy.”
“We” in this case is a team that rivals the original Dream Team, with James joined by Olympic veterans Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis while bridging the gap with younger American stars such as Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton.
“We’re not stepping on their toes or anything like that, but we just hope to continue to set a standard for them because they’re already great,” James said. “And see if they can keep that up and be great for as long as they want to be.”
“So I hope we just set the standards for them.”
News Source : www.latimes.com
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