Lakers Rookie Forward Details First Interaction with LeBron James

The Los Angeles Lakers' front office was hard at work during the 2023 trade deadline as they were able to deal away some of their older, less ideal pieces in exchange for a slew of younger role players that fit much better with their stars. D'Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, and Jared Vanderbilt all helped bring new life to the squad and paved way for a nice playoff run.

However, Austin Reaves was definitely their breakout player of the season as he went from a hustle guy and spot-up shooter to someone who LA was legitimately feeding the ball at the end of games. Die-hard Lakers fans probably knew that Reaves possessed this skillset all along from watching him during his time in the G-League with the South Bay Lakers and in the NBA's summer league.

AUSTIN REAVES SUMMER LEAGUE GAME WINNER 🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/cs0IXbpbNj
— The Laker Files (@LakerFiles) August 9, 2021

With the 25-year-old guard set to make up to $100 million and Rui Hachimura due for a nice payday as well, LA will be on the lookout for veterans to pick up on cheap deals and hope that Max Christie and Cole Swider take leaps in their second seasons with the franchise.

Swider is an interesting case because he only saw action in seven games for the purple and gold in the 2022-2023 season and played an average of six minutes per game. He has a pretty versatile play style and even though he suffered a navicular foot injury that limited him to just one game with the South Bay Lakers, his potential is still pretty high.

Every Cole Swider 3-pointer from Summer League 💰💰💰 pic.twitter.com/OQx1eBEyVp
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) July 17, 2022

He recently hopped on an episode of Club Ambition Podcast and detailed his first interaction with superstar teammate LeBron James and it definitely went as expected.

"He was in the back talking to Rob & Marvin and then he comes back and I came to get my ankles taped and he was sitting down right next to my stuff," said Swider. "He was like 'Yo, what's up Cole?'. I'm like 'Yo, this is crazy.' Like my whole entire life, this is a guy that I idolized. There's few people that could ever reach that level of status and fame."

(Via Club Ambition)

We are super excited how Swider could grow this coming season!