One Speculative Rumor About LeBron James Created a Day of NBA Havoc

No, LeBron James is NOT going to leave Cleveland to go play for the Golden State Warriors. There is not a Sports Universe where he would be able to join Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.

But for one day---one speculative tweet by an ESPN NBA Reporter sent Thursday morning sent every single person who covers the league and every talking head who talks sports into an absolute crazed, off the rails frenzy.

Chris Haynes published a "Highly Speculative" story which essentially boiled down to this:

"Out of respect for the Warriors' winning culture, James would listen if Golden State explored ways to clear the necessary cap space, sources said."

The only true fact in the story---The Warriors would have to clear at least one "Max" contract in order to pay James what it would take for him to play there.

But the existence of the report created situations and comments like this all day long:

But that wasn't as crazy as this:

Yes, the NBA experts all believe James will at least test the Free Agent waters next season as he's been reportedly very unhappy with the atmosphere behind the scenes in Cleveland.

I'm pretty sure there won't be a 60 minute ESPN special on his decision---though I could be wrong.

Unfortunately in the Social Media world we now live in---people we say, speculate and do whatever they think might draw the most attention. And even more unfortunately in the tightly insulated world of Sports, often it will force those who have to cover teams to deal with said rumors or speculation even though they know full well it is not true.

Mind you, I'm not criticizing Haynes---he appears to have written a "What if?" story that everyone else read differently than it was likely intended.

Because realistically---if there was a world where the Warriors could offer LeBron what he was looking for---he'd be absolutely insane to not talk to them. I mean think about it---if someone offered you a "Dream" job, even though it is highly unlikely to actually happen, you'd at least give that someone an opportunity to state your case.....