# Kurtenbach: The Warriors aren’t victims of the LeBron sweepstakes. They’re active participants in their own demise > Source: > Published: 2026-07-06 21:10:40+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...All signs point to the [Warriors](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/30/lebron-james-leaves-lakers-free-agent-warriors-steph-curry/) losing the [LeBron James sweepstakes](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/30/lebron-james-tells-lakers-he-wont-be-back-next-season/). I could list off a bunch of [recent reports](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/06/warriors-quinten-post-grizzlies-free-agency-offer-sheet-lebron-james/) [that say just that](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/03/lebron-james-agent-explains-why-warriors-are-appealing-free-agency-destination/), but anyone who has been paying attention has seen [this outcome as inevitable for weeks.](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/29/kurtenbach-talks-cheap-actions-expensive-the-warriors-dont-deserve-the-benefit-of-the-doubt-on-big-offseason-moves/?utm_campaign=mrf-twitter-BayAreaSportsHQ&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202606296a3fbb41b5129c43bc438085) Because the Warriors were never going to change their playbook under general manager Mike Dunleavy: forfeiting the game while confidently pretending to be the house. Team CEO Joe Lacob and Dunleavy will soon play the victim. They’ll decry the circumstance when LeBron inevitably takes his talents anywhere but San Francisco. They’ll peddle their favorite corporate buzzword — “optionality,” as in they still have their first-round draft picks and a couple median-value players — all to mask the reality: this front office is completely paralyzed by fear. Because the indefensible part is that, in refusing to pay the exorbitant but fully understood price to land LeBron, the Warriors didn’t just miss out on the King. They missed on everyone else, too, choosing the warm embrace of PR-spun irrelevance over the cold risk of actually trying. When the news inevitably drops, the front office will declare what they always declare. “We tried.” Then we’ll have the leaks. They’ll spin a yarn about how great Jimmy Butler’s rehab is going. They’ll swear they have plenty of avenues to improve before the NBA trade deadline. And when the locals stop buying that slop, they’ll float their interest in some 2027 free agent. Get ready for baseless Nikola Jokic rumors. It’s the same tired act the Warriors have performed since Bob Myers exited stage left with a sigh of relief. They play the PR game, not the real one. They ensure everyone knows they’re “in the mix” for every disgruntled superstar on the market. Then, when the bill comes due, they suddenly discover they left their wallet in their other pants. They keep their powder dry. They maintain the status quo. How’s that working out for them? The Warriors aren’t victims here. No, they’re the active participants in their own demise. If they actually wanted LeBron, the cost of doing business was laid out in blinding neon and a hastily scribbled whiteboard. Rich Paul didn’t just read the tea leaves on his podcast; he served the league alphabet soup. If the Warriors wanted LeBron, they had to go get Anthony Davis. Yes, trading for Davis is a dubious proposition. The man has played fewer games over the last two seasons than Kristaps Porzingis, who is fighting a mysterious autoimmune disease. And acquiring Davis was going to cost Butler, a couple of first-round picks and a decent role player, to boot. You’d likely have to extend him upon acquisition, too. That’s a massive risk. And if the Warriors balked at the price tag, fair enough. But the Warriors don’t do big risks under Dunleavy. That’s the core issue. Their fatal flaw, this time around, wasn’t walking away from the LeBron mandate. It’s that they stood frozen in the middle of the room, doing absolutely nothing else. They didn’t have the ability to say “thanks, but no thanks,” and move on with their offseason, just like they couldn’t make a call on Jonathan Kuminga last summer. They kept a chair open for a 41-year-old on the sheer, unadulterated basis of hope. They banked on the “allure of the Warriors” — a strictly internal delusion — carrying the day. Hubris and risk aversion make for a lethal cocktail in high-level professional sports. Just ask a Bulls fan. Or the team a few blocks north of Warriors Way. Had the Warriors made the necessary, perhaps reckless, moves to land James, they’d be sitting in a better position, to be sure. We’d get one or two deeply fascinating years of basketball, fueled by the delusional idea that “experience” wins championships. It definitely beats the current delusion of running back a 36-win roster and praying for a miracle. Because while Golden State held the door open for LeBron, the rest of the league did business. Guys like Collin Sexton, Anfernee Simons and Rui Hachimura — all viable options to use the mid-level exception the Warriors were offering LeBron — signed elsewhere. Now, they’ll slide De’Anthony Melton or DeMar DeRozan into that empty chair and try to convince you this was the master plan all along. This franchise has proven the ability to spin anything — to keep ravenous fans on the line under any circumstance. But this is unspinnable. This is the end of that line. This is just embarrassing. They didn’t just get played. They smiled as they lost a game they either didn’t understand or were woefully inept at playing. Because when you operate entirely out of fear — fear of looking silly, fear of making a mistake — you always lose. The NBA is the realm of the bold, not the timid. It’s obvious which category these Warriors occupy. I reserve the right to be wrong here. Perhaps the latest reports are wrong. Perhaps my zeal to reiterate my distrust of the Dubs’ front office has blinded me to their behind-the-scenes brilliance. I genuinely hope that’s the case. Because the reality speeding toward the Golden State Warriors is just too sad to fully rationalize.