Lebron James Is A Free Agent Again, World Cup Must Win For USMNT, John Smoltz Talking Baseball Plus Our Dingers Only Fantasy Draft

**Dan Katz** (0:00)
Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings, it's the Fab Four. It's me, PFT, Memes, and Zach. Hank and Max are off for the wedding week. I'm very excited for Max. He actually offered to zoom in. I was like, dude, it's your wedding week. And they were at the beach. So they're having a great time. We're going to talk some NBA free agency, Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard. We got World Cup. We've got John Smoltz on the show talking some baseball. Also talking about our trip to Tahoe, coming up in a couple days for Chill Week. We also have the return of the Dumbest Fantasy League in the world. It is Dingers only. For anyone who has not listened in the past, we start our Fantasy Baseball League in the middle of the season. The only stat is home runs. And we have Brandon, Jersey Jerry and Stephen Shea also competing with us. So we have the full draft to see who is on. We also have a couple of calls with some of the guys that are getting drafted. So good show. And then reminder Friday is going to be Dungeons and Dragons. It is all brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea.
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Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, July 1st, and PFT, Lebron James has informed the Lakers that they can look elsewhere.
He is not fired, he quits, and now is going to be a free agent for what we think is the last time, late decision 2026 I can't believe we're here, but we're here.

**PFT Commenter** (3:13)
Yeah. I mean, he's also maybe the best dad of all time because he waited until the day after Bronnie's contract was guaranteed to opt out and say, hey, I'm not going to be back next year. So looks like you're stuck babysitting my son. Sorry, there's nothing I can do legally. He now belongs to you guys. So if nothing else, we can report that Lebron James is all-star dad, first team, first team to be a dad, Lebron James.
So now Rich Paul is going around. He's talking to every team that will pick up his phone call. And then Rich Paul is going to present all the offers to Lebron. And then there will be Lead Decision 2026
And it feels like, yeah, we're back in like 2012 all over again. It feels like, will he won't? He just won't stop. And I guess you want to power rank the places that we would like to see Lebron play next year.

**Dan Katz** (4:01)
Okay, yeah, last Golden State, which seems like the favorite.

**PFT Commenter** (4:06)
That's such bullshit, by the way. Like if we got mad at Kevin Durant for going to Golden State, this would be pathetic, pathetic.

**Dan Katz** (4:15)
And listen, it feels like it might be Golden State. It feels like Golden State or Cleveland.
Cleveland is the one that would, I think we all can be like, you know what? That's actually a good ending for Lebron. Incredible career, second best player of all time. He's done it for two, two decades plus to finish it, where he started it, you know, close to, you know, Akron, everything, you know, everything that is involved in that, I think would be very cool. And I would be like that, that's a cool move. Golden State and Golden State feels like it's a strong possibility. Cause Wind Horse is by the way, cooking right now. Wind Horse, I know you don't like him PFT, but Wind Horse is cooking.