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Front Office Sports - The Memo

Morning Edition

July 1, 2025

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LeBron James has signaled he and the Lakers might be headed in different directions. What would a trade of the 40-year-old legend look like? It’s not simple—but it continues to loom over the NBA offseason despite free agency beginning Monday night.

—Colin Salao, Eric Fisher, and David Rumsey

LeBron James Drama Looms As NBA Offseason Begins

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

For the past several years, it’s appeared as though LeBron James was prepared to end his career in Los Angeles. However, the 40-year-old’s decision Sunday has raised speculation about his future.

James opted in to his $52.6 million player option for next season. While this may seem like a sign of the four-time MVP’s commitment to the Lakers, it’s potentially the opposite.

By opting in, James will become an unrestricted free agent next offseason. Since joining the Lakers on a four-year deal in 2018, James has never been a free agent, instead signing three separate two-year extensions.

Rich Paul, James’s agent, told ESPN that James “wants to compete for a championship” and recognizes that the Lakers are “building for the future.”

For more on where James could go if he were to ask out, you can read our full story here.

Nuggets, Rockets Make Aggressive Moves to Challenge Thunder

The Thunder have been champions for just over a week, but two of their stiffest competitors in the Western Conference opened the offseason with moves that could bridge the gap.

Within the first few hours of the start of NBA free agency Monday, the Rockets signed forward Dorian Finney-Smith (four years, $53 million) and center Clint Capela (three years, $21 million). Houston, which also extended Jabari Smith Jr. to a five-year, $122 million deal, finished with the No. 2 seed last season, behind only Oklahoma City in the West. 

The three deals fall on top of their trade for Kevin Durant, which was reported hours before Game 7 of the NBA Finals (though the deal will be finalized next week).

Meanwhile, the Nuggets acquired Cam Johnson from the Nets in exchange for Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 unprotected first-round pick. Denver was able to cut about $35 million from its payroll over the next two seasons, as Johnson has two years, $44.1 million remaining on his deal while Porter has two years, $79.1 million.

Denver, which took the Thunder to seven games in the conference semifinals in May, also signed Bruce Brown Jr., a key piece of its 2023 title team, to a one-year deal for the veteran minimum.

The moves are the first for the team’s new front office, led by VP of basketball operations Ben Tenzer and VP of player personnel John Wallace. The Nuggets fired GM Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone in April with three games remaining in the season. 

Special Extension

The largest contract handed out on Monday night went to Grizzlies All-Star Jaren Jackson Jr. Memphis signed Jackson to a five-year, $240 million contract that had a special wrinkle.

Jackson still had one more year on his deal, and instead of adding four years on top, the Grizzlies renegotiated his deal to give him additional salary next season while adding four more years to the deal. Jackson would not have re-signed without the immediate raise, as extensions are capped to a 20% increase on a player’s current salary.

The 25-year-old’s salary for next season jumps from $23.4 million to $33 million in the deal, while the remaining four years will total nearly $207 million. The contract runs until the 2029–30 season.

For more on Monday night’s biggest moves, including Atlanta’s fascinating offseason, read  our full story here.

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Manfred, MLB Owners Pitch Directly to Players Ahead of CBA Expiration

Arizona Republic

Even though formal bargaining between MLB and the MLB Players Association is still nearly a year away, the league already has an emerging plan for the talks: Appeal directly to individual players to make the case for large-scale change. 

Speaking at a recent investor day for the publicly traded Braves, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the owners plan to work as much as possible with rank-and-file players as they look to reshape baseball’s economic system.

“The strategy is to get directly to the players,” Manfred said. “I don’t think the leadership of this union is anxious to lead the way to change. So we need to energize the workforce in order to get them familiar with or supportive of the idea that maybe changing the system could be good for everybody.”

That messaging has already begun as Manfred has made his annual tours to meet with players in every market. 

The current, five-year labor deal between the owners and players expires in December 2026, with talks likely to begin early next year. Manfred said earlier this month that no decisions have been made among clubs about whether they’ll push for a salary cap, something the MLBPA has resisted for decades. MLB owners, however, have broad notions in mind, including restructured revenue-sharing, new measures around “cost certainty, predictability, and competitive balance” in player compensation, and having a more defined period around free agency. 

“Other sports, they have free agency, it’s about a month. There’s a lot of bidders,” Manfred said. “It’s a great marketing opportunity for the sport. Players have their choice of where to go. All positive. Our free agency is like the Bataan Death March. It starts the day after the World Series, and in February, really, really, good players are still wandering around the landscape.”

Lessons From the Past

Part of Manfred’s thinking around having a more direct appeal in the next labor round stems from player sentiment in the last one. Amid a bitter, 99-day lockout, the union’s executive subcommittee voted against the labor deal that MLB proposed and ultimately was ratified. That approval, a 26–12 vote that ended the lockout, happened after nearly every other MLBPA player representative disagreed with the executive subcommittee and supported the agreement. 

Another lockout is widely anticipated around the sport. The labor situation, meanwhile, is developing as Manfred and MLB intend to significantly retool baseball’s media presence in 2028, when the league’s current national deals expire, and repackage those rights with local ones. 

“We are pursuing a [media] strategy not dissimilar to what the NBA did,” Manfred said, referring to that league’s $77 billion set of new rights deals with Amazon, ESPN, and NBCUniversal that begin this fall. 

The MLBPA attacked Manfred’s comments. 

“At a time of resurgent attendance, record revenues, and increasing franchise values, MLB should be focused on further promoting our sport,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement to The Athletic. “Instead, their stated plan is once again to try to divide players from each other and their union in service of a system that would add to the owners’ profits and franchise values, while prohibiting clubs from fully competing to put the best product on the field for the fans and limited player compensation, guarantees, and flexibility.” 

College Sports Revenue-Sharing Underway As More Changes Loom

The Columbus Dispatch

The revenue-sharing era in college sports officially begins Tuesday, when Division I athletic departments can directly pay student-athletes.

The monumental day arrives less than a month after the House v. NCAA settlement was finally approved, following months of deliberation and a lengthy objection process.

In addition to offering $2.8 billion in damages to former players who weren’t allowed to accept NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals before the NCAA began allowing them in 2021, D-I schools can now pay up to $20.5 million to all current players in their athletic departments. That “college salary cap” number will increase incrementally over the next 10 years, during the lifetime of the injunctive relief.

Football teams are expected to get the vast majority of revenue-sharing dollars—roughly 75% in many cases. Men’s and women’s basketball programs are expected to receive the next-highest amounts of what’s left. Most schools will likely allocate 5% or less to sports outside of football and basketball.

Strange New Times

Preparations for the revenue-sharing era have seen schools take some unprecedented steps over the past year as they sort out the logistics of paying players:

  • Many schools are disbanding official NIL collectives that have previously helped pay players.
  • New fees around sporting event tickets and standard student fees are being introduced.
  • Conferences are working on an enforcement agreement to bind schools to the terms of the settlement.
  • Dozens of D-I Olympic sports programs at colleges have been either cut or consolidated.
  • Schools are exploring bringing private-equity investment into their athletic departments, while conferences hold off, for now.
  • Buyout clauses will be on the table for player contracts should they choose to transfer.

Dollars and Sense

As top athletic programs transition from using NIL money to revenue-sharing for their primary resource of paying players, this next football and basketball season will mark a unique circumstance for stars to cash in on both categories.

Last football season, the term “$20 million roster” was thrown around for top teams like Oregon and Ohio State. That referred to the amount of NIL money players on said teams were making.

This year, top football teams may once again have $20 million in NIL money allocated to their players, in addition to sharing roughly $15 million of revenue with football players, too.

However, under the oversight of the newly created College Sports Commission, all new NIL deals over $600 will be vetted to determine whether the deal represents fair-market value. That is aimed at preventing NIL collectives from funneling money to players without actually having them participate in an endorsement deal.

So, any large spike in football-player pay this season may be only temporary.

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Editors’ Picks

ESPN, MLB Relationship May Not Be Over After All

by Eric Fisher
The parties restart rights talks amid a high-profile divorce in February.

Rape Suit Against QB Retzlaff Dismissed, but He’s Still Leaving BYU

by Margaret Fleming
Retzlaff admitted to “consensual” sex, violating BYU’s strict honor code.

NHL Free Agency Begins With Big Money but Modest Star Power

by Eric Fisher
Teams will look to take advantage of an enlarged salary cap.

Question of the Day

Will Tony Clark still be the executive director of the MLBPA a year from now?

 YES   NO 

Monday’s result: 54% of respondents plan on watching Wimbledon on TV.

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Written by Colin Salao, Eric Fisher, David Rumsey
Edited by Or Moyal, Catherine Chen

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