LeBron James has “no idea” if he and Stephen Curry will work together again

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – After years of competing in the NBA Finals, LeBron James and Stephen Curry teamed up this summer for a common goal – winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics for Team USA. The question is, will they ever be teammates again?

“I have no idea,” James said Monday.

The league’s all-time leading scorer was asked about the all-time leader in 3-point shots before the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors’ two preseason games this week – Tuesday in Las Vegas and Friday in San Francisco.

While James didn’t pour cold water on the idea, the chances of them meeting on an NBA court – other than the All-Star Game – are slim. In February, James, 39, said he hoped to finish his career with the Lakers. Since then, both he and the organization reaffirmed their commitment to one another, with LA drafting James’ son Bronny James and signing LeBron to a two-year, $104 million contract extension.

Curry, 36, meanwhile, signed a one-year, $62.6 million contract extension in August that will keep him in Golden State through the 2026-27 season – which will be his 18th in the league, albeit franchise.

“I’ve always said I want to be a warrior for life,” Curry told Andscape in July. “At this point in my career, I feel like it’s possible.”

Sources told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that the Warriors inquired about trading James leading up to last season’s trade deadline. However, nothing was done after Lakers governor Jeanie Buss instructed Golden State to speak with James’ longtime agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. In all likelihood, James and Curry – who played 22 Finals games against each other in the four years from 2015 to 2018 – will only remember that 11-0 win with Team USA as teammates this summer.

“It was everything and more,” James said. “I was really happy to finally be able to work with him in an atmosphere where it was a matter of victory and death. This was what it was like to be a part of the Olympics. It was everything I dreamed of and wanted to be.” Part of this team, along with Steph. Something I will remember for the rest of my life.

The memories of James’ triple-double and second-half defense against Nikola Jokic in the semifinal against Serbia and Curry’s flurry of threes to knock out France in the title game are fresher than their clashes with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Warriors – or even subsequent ones years between LA and Golden State in the postseason.

“I understand what Steph did for this game,” James said. “I understand what he has done for his organization, what he has done for the community and for people around the world. Just by his approach to the game and who he is as a man. What he is like as a family man. How he as a man is a husband, a father, a son, all that stuff.

“So when you have that kind of respect for someone and then you get to be around them every day and see how they work and how they approach their craft, that’s a pretty cool thing. You can just respect that and don’t take it for granted.

While James was happy to talk about Curry, he was less interested in answering a question about how training camp is going for Bronny – particularly all the attention he’s generated despite having just 2 points and 5 turnovers in 35 minutes so far in the preseason has achieved.

“You have to ask him,” LeBron James said after practice on Monday. “This is a grown man. Ask him how he deals with it. And then we continue. But he is a grown man. He is a professional. He can handle all this pressure himself. But we know why – good or bad – the attention is here.