{"id":774676,"date":"2026-06-30T17:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774676\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:51:18","slug":"lebron-james-loves-bojangles-could-it-be-enough-to-lure-him-to-the-charlotte-hornets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774676\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James loves Bojangles — could it be enough to lure him to the Charlotte Hornets?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The video above is a live stream of WBTV and affiliated programming, and may not be directly related to the article below.<\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – After eight years, LeBron James will reportedly not return to the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania reported<\/a> on Tuesday, June 30, that the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer told the Lakers he intends to play elsewhere in the 2026-2027 season.<\/p>\n

With James free to sign anywhere, some favorites have emerged.<\/p>\n

Among those favorites are the Golden State Warriors and James\u2019 hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

One team that could — perhaps, maybe? — be flying under the radar is the Charlotte Hornets. Why\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

Well, if you didn\u2019t know, LeBron apparently \u201cloves\u201d the popular Charlotte-based chicken chain, Bojangles.<\/p>\n

ESPN personality Ryan McGee — who just so happens to have deep Carolina roots — talked about James\u2019 love for Bojangles during a 2024 appearance<\/a> on the Pat McAfee Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know LeBron James loves Charlotte?\u201d McGee asked McAfee during that appearance. \u201cAnd the reason he loves Charlotte is because Bojangles — I\u2019m not making this up — Bojangles chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen LeBron James was a rookie, the deal was he would leave games at the old Hive … the takeaway food you get on the plane after a game for the visiting team was a little two-piece box of fried chicken from Bojangles. So LeBron James became so obsessed with Bojangles, he would on the plane — as a rookie — hand out cash. He would take it all home.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd finally, he would send the clubhouse attendant to go buy, like, one of these tailgate packs to take back to Cleveland with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlotte certainly isn\u2019t among the favorites to land the 41-year-old basketball legend, but perhaps it hasn\u2019t thrown enough cajun seasoning or Bo-Berry biscuits James\u2019 way.<\/p>\n

The Hornets have a bit of an identity crisis after trading away LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges within the past week, but if Bojangles is enough to lure the man they call \u201cKing James,\u201d then the basketball legend could fill a King-sized hole in the Queen City.<\/p>\n

In all seriousness, the Hornets seemingly have virtually no chance of bringing in the 22-time All-Star. But then again, your phone could spontaneously combust while reading this. So, who really knows?<\/p>\n

\"LeBronLeBron James — reportedly a big Bojangles fan — is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers after 8 seasons.(AP\/Bojangles)<\/p>\n

Also Read: UNC basketball champion arrested after illegal sports betting scheme<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WBTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The video above is a live stream of WBTV and affiliated programming, and may not be directly related…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,94610,94621,684,95,942,4726,685,517,4034,300,21090,3671,516,251,6,320,67,2768,1773,1319,1222,12159,18,4858,66,396,63,3067,7016,742,533],"class_list":["post-774676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-bball","tag-bojangles","tag-charlotte","tag-for","tag-get","tag-go","tag-hornets","tag-james","tag-la","tag-lakers","tag-lal","tag-latest","tag-lebron","tag-los-angeles","tag-nba","tag-nc","tag-news","tag-next","tag-north-carolina","tag-odds","tag-play","tag-played","tag-player","tag-sign","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-to","tag-update","tag-updates","tag-what","tag-who"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116840332570554932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}