When the stunning news broke that the Golden State Warriors reached out the team that knocked them out of the Western Conference semifinals, your Los Angeles Lakers, about potentially trading to add 20-time All-Star combo forward LeBron James to their roster of veteran future Hall of Famers, the NBA world at large was stunned.

Apparently, negotiations got as far as an owner-to-owner conversation between Dubs head honcho Joe Lacob and Lakers owner Jeanie Buss. The offer was ultimately floated to James himself, who supposedly demurred — although James at All-Star Weekend feigned surprise, claiming he never was approached.

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons postulated recently about why the news leaked at all, by trying to gauge who would benefit from the intel getting out there.

His surprising conclusion: the Lakers themselves. We’ll let him explain.

“So why does this come out?” Simmons asks.”There are two reasons, and both benefits the Lakers. One, they gave LeBron an out: ‘All right man, you want out, here’s an option.’ And [James says], ‘No, no, actually I’ll stay here.’ So now he can’t say s*** about the trade deadline [LA made no moves] because they gave him an out.”

“More sinister, funnier and more diabolical is this though: so the Warriors are playing really well now… The Lakers just f***ed with their chemistry… Diabolical move by the Lakers [to leak the news]. I kind of love it.”