Warriors' Challenger for LeBron Makes Move That Signals End of James Bid
Warriors' Challenger for LeBron Makes Move That Signals End of James Bid
Golden State has one fewer team to worry about in the LeBron sweepstakesJoey Akeley|
In this story:
Golden State WarriorsAmong the Golden State Warriors' advantages in the LeBron James sweepstakes is the ability to offer the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception of $15 million.
Among their biggest potential challengers, the San Antonio Spurs stood out as a team that could offer that contract to James.
Well, they can't anymore.
ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the Spurs used their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Tobias Harris to a two-year, $31 million deal.
The Stein Line's Marc Stein reported that the Spurs are not expected to pursue James after signing Harris, but he added that the Nuggets are joining the chase.
Warriors Have Easiest Access to NTMLE Among Remaining Challengers
The Cavaliers, Heat and Nuggets are currently the three biggest challengers to land James, and they all have cap constraints that affect how much they can offer the four-time MVP.
The Heat used part of their NTMLE on Tim Hardaway Jr.'s one-year, $6.5 million contract, so they don't have the ability to make an offer even close to the $15 million offer the Warriors can make.
The Cavs haven't officially come to terms with James Harden, but unless he takes a bigger pay cut than expected, they won't have access to the full NTMLE.
The Nuggets' five highest-paid players make about $186 million. They would have to salary-dump one of them to have access to the full NTMLE.
How Warriors Can Use the NTMLE on James and Sign Green
As I argued here, the most realistic way for the Warriors to sign James with the NTMLE and pay Draymond Green a salary close to $20 million is trading Moses Moody.
After the Warriors and De'Anthony Melton agreed to a two-year, $11 million deal, Green's salary might top out at $17 million following a Moody trade.
But the point still stands.
The Warriors will need someone to take on Moody's $12.5 million contract while he's injured. That isn't necessarily a foregone conclusion, but I suspect one of the five rebuilding teams that have a trade exception big enough to absorb Moody's contract would be happy to take on a 24-year-old wing under contract through 2027-28.
The other option is trading or releasing Kristaps Porzingis, but that's more of an emergency solution.
If the Warriors are the only team offering James the NTMLE, that could make a big difference.
Golden State certainly seems to be making James its top priority, whereas other challengers are operating as if he's not.
Published 22 minutes ago | Modified 1 minute ago
JOEY AKELEYJoey was a writer and editor at Bleacher Report for 13 years. He's a Bay Area sports expert and a huge NBA fan.
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Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA's rising star after stunning upset in Colorado- US News
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Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
By Ryan King Published July 1, 2026, 2:06 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on GoogleWASHINGTON — Democratic socialism is spreading West.
Political newcomer Melat Kiros, 29, who took down 15-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) in a stunning primary upset Tuesday, is riding a wave of anti-Israel and anti-ICE sentiment sweeping her party.
The Ethiopian-born PhD student has pushed to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), suggested that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were “inevitable,” downplayed suggestions that a firebombing of a Jewish rally was an act of antisemitism, and more.
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Once in the House of Representatives, which is considered likely because she’s in a safe blue district, Kiros has vowed to push Democrats as far left as possible and to oppose Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) becoming speaker.
Political awakening
Kiros refined many of her far-left views in law school at Notre Dame in the early 2020s, a period she describes as her political awakening, as the country was roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic and peak wokeness.
“I literally watched the Federalist Society handpicking some of my classmates onto the judge track in their decades-long bid to pack the courts,” she complained, according to Vox. “…I just lost faith in the system; I think a lot of young people did.”
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After law school in 2022, she joined the law firm Sidley Austin in New York, where she worked as a regulatory and enforcement associate. The following year, she was fired for writing a viral open letter lambasting law firms for pushing to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
“By chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy, you are complicit in Israel’s weaponization of anti-Semitism against legitimate concerns for the right of self-determination and the livelihood of the Palestinian people,” she wrote in the missive.
Sidley Austin demanded she take the letter down, but Kiros claims she refused and was fired as a result.
“I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will,” she boasted during her victory speech Tuesday.
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That move drew headlines and boosted her name recognition in lefty circles.
After losing her law gig, Kiros moved back to Colorado, where her family had immigrated while she was just 11-months-old. Her father had been picked in America’s Diversity Visa Lottery, per her campaign website.
Back home, she enrolled in a PhD program in public policy and worked as a barista.
Then, in the middle of last year, she decided to launch a seemingly long-shot primary challenge against DeGette, who is widely considered to be a very progressive lawmaker and has served in Congress longer than Kiros has been alive.
DeGette had the backing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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But Kiros’ candidacy caught fire with the DSA and other lefty groups that were hunting for candidates to take on incumbent Democrats and push the party further leftwards.
One of the major differences between the two was Kiros’ tougher stance against Israel. DeGette faced grassroots pushback for supporting defensive aid to Israel.
Kiros, however, made tough talk against the Jewish state a feature of her campaign.
For example, she told notorious lefty streamer Hasan Piker that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was an “inevitable consequence of apartheid,” though she later clarified she wasn’t trying to say it was justified.
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Piker is a very controversial streamer, having declared that “America deserved 9/11″ and praised the “brave mujahideen” who injured Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).
In a similar vein, she told 9News journalist Kyle Clark that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of US foreign policy.
Kiros has stirred local controversy for downplaying the role of antisemitism in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a weekly Jewish gathering aimed at bringing attention to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. One person was killed and a dozen were injured in that attack.
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The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, screamed “Free Palestine” before later stating that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” according to the FBI.
Kiros repeatedly declined to call it antisemitism and told NOTUS that it wasn’t “entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism.”
Many of her positions are similar to those of other DSA members, including support for Medicare for All, a modified Green New Deal, and mass amnesty. Kiros also wants a 10% slash in Pentagon spending.
“People are seeing that capitalism is responsible for a lot of the degradation that we’re seeing in our economy, that we’re seeing in our democracy, that we’re certainly seeing in our climate as well,” she claimed in a recent interview.
“They’re demanding a new way to organize our economy.”
Should she win in November, she will be the first Gen. Z woman to serve in Congress and the second Zoomer overall, after Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.)
She is riding a socialist revolt within the Democratic Party, as far-left candidates have won primaries across New York, Maine, Illinois, and elsewhere heading into the midterms.
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