NBA

I believe you on all points, except that I'm certain he could have gotten a max contract from another team if he wanted to leave. He chose to stay with the Lakers, not for the money, but to play with his son. If the Lakers had not drafted Bronny, and another team signed him, and they also offered him a two year max contract, I bet LeBron would have taken it.

But it would have been much harder for him to negotiate that sort of deal without creating problems related to tampering. He couldn't shop around the league to find a max contract AND a team that would draft his son, but it was definitely known what his price would be. He told the Lakers to go get his son, and he would sign a team-friendly extension. I mean, it's not that much of a discount, and it puts the team in a better position financially. So there were a lot of reasons he took that contract. I just mean that there's no way he takes a pay cut if the Lakers had said "no" to Bronny.