NBA superstar LeBron James bolted Cleveland to sign a free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Lakers to extend his reach as an entertainment mogul and to lay the groundwork for a potential future presidential run.

That is the contention of FS1 Speak for Yourself co-host Jason Whitlock, who described it on the broadcast as a purely political move unrelated to basketball and more for the “media and the money,” suggesting that he has pivoted away from trying to equal or surpass Michael Jordan’s championship legacy.

As it stands now, and barring injuries, there is no chance that the Lakers can compete with the defending champion Golden State Warriors for the NBA title.

Since Tinseltown is “ground zero for the social justice and race warriors,” left-wing Hollywood executives will become LBJ’s puppet masters as they try to position him as a liberal superhero, Whitlock added.

Whitlock is one of the very few commentators in sports journalism, at least on television, who articulates a different view than the what is acceptable to the politically correct blue-check Twitter cohort.

Two James apologists on the panel, ex-NBA players Stephen Jackson and Dahntay Jones, disagreed, insisting that opting to leave the Cavaliers for the Lakers was for basketball-related reasons.

NBA analyst Chris Broussard chimed in that LeBron James could be a viable candidate for president down the road because he combines family values, social justice, and entrepreneurism. He also made an interesting point that both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were essentially third-party candidates, and LeBron James could follow an independent path as presidential hopeful.

Recall, however, that LeBron James campaigned with Hillary Clinton in his home state of Ohio, but Trump carried the Buckeye State in the 2016 presidential election.

Many NBA players lead a hedonistic lifestyle, so perhaps LeBron James is the exception. Jason Whitlock warned that Hollywood can change people drastically, however.

With Trump winning the presidency, various delusional liberal celebrities seem to think that they have a chance too.

But Trump, as Dilbert creator Scott Adams might say, has a unique “talent stack” and persuasion skills, even though the POTUS is sometimes his own worst enemy with his impromptu riffs in public settings and on Twitter. The latest example is needlessly trolling the NFL and its new national anthem policy in a speech last night at a Montana rally.

Trump has been on record for decades talking about the need to put America first in terms of international trade and other issues, so that also makes him unique.

For anyone else, if you’re an A-lister who is financially set for generations to come and leads a life of leisure with occasional work, why would you want to get into the rough-and-tumble and petty/tawdry world of politics?