LeBron James was hiding his mouth but not his intentions as he spoke with Kevin Durant last week in full view of everyone inside Staples Center and before a national television audience. In an otherwise meaningless game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors, LeBron created a social media feeding frenzy with his very public/private conversation during a first-quarter timeout.



“Everybody wants to know what we’re talking about,” Durant would say afterwards. “It wasn’t even that serious. Just laughing and joking and catching up.”



LeBron is a shrewd businessman and since the rules about player-to-player tampering are blurred, his public recruitment of Durant is fair game. Whether it works will be determined in July when Durant, the top free agent on the market, makes a decision that could dramatically alter the NBA landscape.



We say “could” because LeBron’s move to the Lakers dramatically...