To kick off NBA free agency, LeBron James exercised his $52.6 million player option to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Despite a decision that would lock LeBron into a stay with Los Angeles for his age-41 season—not to mention the acquisition of Deandre Ayton, a center L.A. so desperately needed, to build around James—the latest NBA buzz is not about the superb work newly hired exec Ben Tenzer has performed in building around superstar Nikola Jokic in Denver or the similar efforts GM Onsi Saleh conducted to build an ascending roster in Atlanta.

Instead, the talk largely centers around LeBron’s next trade destination, making the New York Knicks hiring new head coach Mike Brown a relative afterthought.

Given the size of its market, New York, for better or for worse, is always considered in terms of big-name free agents and trade acquisitions, no matter how slim the chances are of a supernova of LeBron’s ilk landing in the Big Apple.

In the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons and guest Rob Mahoney seemed tepid on the prospect of LeBron to New York, proposing deals like Karl-Anthony Towns and a pick for James, or OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson and a pick for LeBron, fulfilling the deal that never was in summer of the fated “Decision” in 2010.

The first proposal would shed the Knicks of the three years remaining on KAT’s deal, whereby the Knicks might only be committed to LeBron for a year with a Mikal Bridges extension looming. However, it discards the goodwill of what the Knicks unlocked with KAT offensively and on the defensive glass.

The second option guts the Knicks of any defensive identity. This route gave Simmons and Mahoney pause and inspired them to ask, “Why would the Knicks do that?”

Prior to the Mike Brown hire, the Knicks built around the edges, adding depth and scoring punch to the bench with Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele. They are better served “running it back” with the core that catapulted them to heights they had not reached in 26 years.

Disrupting the progress this team made throughout the course of Tom Thibodeau’s lofty tenure in New York would be malpractice.

Landing a star well past his prime, no matter how spectacular LeBron James is, even with his ability to channel Tom Brady and excel into his forties, would be the exact move the Knicks would have made that kept them out of playoff contention for the better part of the past two decades.

Leon Rose has proven he does not operate that way, no matter the level of buzz or enticement.

In being a breath away from the NBA Finals and the Eastern Conference so wide open with the Tyrese Haliburton/Jayson Tatum injuries—and the added moves in a “gap year” to shed their teams of larger, looming, or expiring contracts, a la Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Luke Kornet, and Myles Turner—not to mention Detroit’s depleted lineup of reserves amidst the Malik Beasley gambling controversy or the departures of Dennis Schröder and Tim Hardaway, Jr., the Knicks would be better served “standing pat” and permit this club to gel under Mike Brown and his staff’s tutelage (more so if the Knicks can somehow land Phil Handy to assist Brown), making good on their playoff experience and fulfilling an “unfinished business” mentality.

Regardless of what their tenures looked like in the end—or the trajectory they took to land in New York—one has to respect what Allan Houston, Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, and Julius Randle did in choosing the Knicks as their preferred team in free agency or via trade.

But LeBron James?

Kevin Durant?

Kyrie Irving?

All three had their chances to become a Knick, and each of them spurned the Garden and the opportunity to alter their legacies.

LeBron conspired to form a Big Three in Miami, taking his “talents to South Beach” en route to two championships on the strength of playing with two Hall of Famers (Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh) and a bevy of star reserves (Ray Allen, Shane Battier, and Mike Miller) who sacrificed more money to play alongside LeBron, and in the case of some, “chase a ring” (see Allen).

KD and Kyrie colluded to bring James Harden to Brooklyn, constructing a trio that ultimately never amounted to much. (In actuality, Julius Randle, considered a Plan C when he initially signed, would go on to win far more playoff games in his time in New York than them.)

LeBron James in New York? Alas, the proverbial ship has sailed.

His elusive fifth ring, which would place him in company with the late Kobe Bryant, won’t be won in L.A., and neither would it happen in the Garden, given what the Knicks would essentially relinquish to bring LeBron into the fold.

His best bet? Play his eighth and final season in Los Angeles. Mentor Luka Doncic, who commands the Lakers now. Ride into the sunset with one more season alongside his son Bronny, and continue distancing himself from the pack as one of the greatest volume scorers the league has ever witnessed.

Because, quite frankly, the New York Knicks are good without him.