“Not going nowhere”: Gary Payton backs LeBron James to finish career at Los Angeles Lakers

Former Seattle SuperSonics star Gary Payton believes that veteran small forward LeBron James will finish his career at the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 39-year-old’s future with the franchise has been under some doubt as it was reported in the recently concluded mid-season transfer window that he might be on his way out. However, those reports never materialised.

Payton was recently quoted in a report where he stated that LeBron will finish his career with the Lakers as it is a team that represents ‘his city’.

“LeBron is not going nowhere,” he said. “L.A. is his city right now, his town. Kobe is really ... it's Kobe's city. But LeBron is taking over now. LeBron did what he wanted — [what] he was supposed to.

“He said, 'I'm staying where I'm at. He's been traveling too many times, been to Cleveland, you know. He been to Miami, went back to Cleveland. This is his last stop, man.”

Recently, a report from ESPN claimed that Golden State Warriors tried to sign James in the mid-season transfer window but they failed to achieve their objective. Payton outrightly rejected that report citing financial reasons.

“Golden State would have to give up everybody. So you only would have been playing with [LeBron] and probably Curry,” he said. “They'd have to give up their whole team. They would have been only LeBron and Curry.”