Most notable moments from NBA media days: Kawhi takes the mic, Giannis leaves trade request door open

Monday was media day for most teams in the NBA, which traditionally marks the unofficial start of a new season. Teams begin training camp this week, with the preseason schedule right around the corner. 

For the most part, media day is a pretty perfunctory exercise. But there were a few things said of note. Below is a roundup of the most important details to emerge from Monday’s press conferences.  

Kawhi takes the podium

A shock of the day was that the Clippers actually let Kawhi Leonard talk in the middle of all these salary-cap circumvention allegations by way of the now-bankrupt company Aspiration, which allegedly paid Leonard $28 million (with an additional $20 million in stock) for a no-show job. 

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is on the hot seat with this stuff. The league’s richest owner is fending off attacks, and, on Monday, Leonard joined his owner and downplayed to the whole thing by saying, among other things, that he doesn’t “deal with the conspiracies or the clickbait analysts or journalism that’s going on” and that he doesn’t “think it’s accurate” that he didn’t perform any services for the money he says he was never even entirely paid. 

Calling this all a conspiracy theory only to actually confirm many of the details about his contract with Aspiration was certainly noteworthy, as is calling it inaccurate that this was a no-show job but failing to provide even one examples of work he did to justify the money he was paid. The NBA’s investigation into the Leonard saga is ongoing.

“The NBA’s gonna do their job,” Leonard said of the league’s ongoing investigation into all thinks Clippers, Leonard and Aspiration. “None of us did no wrongdoing. … We invite the investigations.” 

LeBron cryptic on future

One of the biggest questions entering this season is whether it will be LeBron’s last … either with the Lakers or as an NBA player. One of the factors that might keep LeBron in the league longer is the fact that is son, Bryce, is potentially set to become draft eligible this coming summer.After engineering the opportunity to play alongside his oldest son, Bronny, whom the Lakers selected in the 2024 Draft, might LeBron hang around for another season to possibly play with his youngest son? 

“I’m not waiting on Bryce,” James said, via longtime Lakers reporter Mark Medina. “I don’t know his timeline.”

What does this mean? Would LeBron wait if Bryce indeed enters the draft next summer, but not if he waits longer than that? Would this imply that LeBron isn’t playing beyond 2026-27? 

“However the journey lays out this year, I’m super invested,” LeBron said. “I don’t know when the end is. But I know it’s a lot sooner rather than later.”

To me, it seems unlikely that he would be planning on retiring after this season without announcing it. This dude wants a formal farewell tour. Maybe he will announce it before the season starts. He still has almost a month. 

Until then, everyone is going to be reading anything and everything into every word that comes out of his mouth with regard to retirement, and LeBron seems to be enjoying keeping everyone guessing. 

Giannis keeps trade rumors alive

Giannis didn’t attend the Bucks’ media day as he’s back in Greece dealing with COVID. He did speak to reporters via zoom, however, and expressed confidence in himself and the team Milwaukee has put together, which he said is full of “dogs” and “very, very dangerous.”

Meanwhile, rumors continue to swirl about Giannis’s future with the Bucks, who proved their desperation to keep him this summer by waiving and stretching Damian Lillard to the tune of $113 million over the next five years for the ability to sign Myles Turner. For what it’s worth, Bucks governor Wes Edens believes Giannis was committed to Milwaukee even before the Turner deal went down. 

“I had a great conversation with Giannis back in June out here and he made it clear that he was very committed to Milwaukee,” Edens said. “He likes being here, he likes his family being here… Obviously we’ve had some bad fortune in these last couple years in the playoffs, but there’s a lot of positives.”

This might sound like a positive for Bucks fans if Giannis didn’t turn around and say on Monday that he doesn’t recall this conversation having taken place. All of this comes as the follow up to an August report from ESPN’s Shams Charania that nothing is “set in stone” with regard to Giannis’ future in Milwaukee. 

Giannis did acknowledge that report, and he’s didn’t exactly deny it. 

“Every summer there’s truth to every report,” Antetokounmpo said. “The same thing I’ve been saying my whole career: I want to be on a team that allows me and gives me a chance to win a championship and wants to compete at a high level. I think it’s a disservice to basketball, to the game, to not want to compete at a high level, to want your season to end in April. It’s pretty much the same. 

“I had the same thoughts last year, I had the same thoughts two years ago, I had the same thoughts five years ago. It’s never going to change. I want to be among the best, I want to compete with the best and I want to win another championship. That’s it.”

If Giannis wanted to squash this, he could’ve said I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. But he didn’t. He said he wants to compete for championships, the simple truth is he isn’t going to be doing that in Milwaukee any time soon. Which is to say, Giannis did nothing to erase the writing that is clearly on the wall. 

Durant, Jokić looking to extend

Two guys that did confirm their commitment to their current franchises on Monday were Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokić. Durant, of course, was traded to the Rockets this summer. He’s in the final year of his contract and could become a free agent this coming summer, but he noted the “quick progression of this franchise” and said plainly he wants to be a part of it moving forward. 

“I do see myself signing a contract extension,” Durant said. “I can’t tell you exactly when that will happen, but I do see it happening.”

Meanwhile, Jokić is set to become a free agent in the summer of 2027 if he doesn’t extend by then, and of course teams like the Warriors are planning their books as if he’s actually going to make it that far without extending in Denver. 

This is a pipe dream for the Warriors and Lakers (and whomever else). Jokić isn’t going anywhere, and he said as much on Monday when he basically told everyone to not read anything into the fact that he hasn’t signed an extension yet (it’s a timing thing aimed at signing for as much money as possible) while saying his plan is to “be with the Nuggets forever.”

As noted in the section above, if Giannis wanted to squelch the the trade rumors, this is how you do it.