Mavs Scout Bryce James at Nike Peach Jam; LeBron Trade Recruitment?

The Dallas Mavericks, who have had trade interest in Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, made scouting his son Bryce James a ‘priority’ at NIKE EYBL's Peach Jam tournament.

Dalton Trigg | Jul 5, 2023

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Although the Dallas Mavericks have had a commendable offseason, the fireworks haven’t been as big and bright as they could’ve been.

Exactly one month ago today, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that Mavs star point guard Kyrie Irving reached out to Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James to gauge his interest in coming to Dallas.

Nothing came of that … for now, but it could’ve been the first step toward potentially bringing James to Dallas in free agency next year without the Mavs having to give up valuable assets in a trade. After all, if LeBron is going to uproot from L.A., it should be for a situation that maximizes his championship window, right?

When it comes to recruiting LeBron, it certainly doesn’t hurt for him to know the Mavs are scouting his son, Bryce James, who is an upcoming high school junior. According to Yahoo! Sports, the Mavs are one of the teams that scouted James on the first day of NIKE EYBL's Peach Jam tournament.

“The youngest son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James made his Peach Jam debut Monday afternoon and finished with 12 points (2-for-6 from 3, 4-for-9 from the field) in the Strive For Greatness (California) win over Expressions in the 16-under division, 78-69,” Krysten Peek wrote.

“Scouts from the Lakers, Magic, Cavaliers, Mavericks, Heat, Knicks, Suns, Hawks and other teams all made James a priority on Day 1 of games.”

Who knows how far that conversation with LeBron and Kyrie went a month ago, but with Irving signing a new three-year, $126 million deal to stay in Dallas, the recruitment could continue given their strong relationship. Maybe LeBron’s sons could be a part of the equation at some point as well.

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Published Jul 5, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.