Lakers News: LeBron James Is Sick Of Playing For A Losing Team
It took a rough-but-not-embarrassing road loss to a better-but-not-great team for LeBron James to finally snap.
After inking a lucrative extension with your Los Angeles Lakers this summer, the 18-time All-Star, one of the greatest in the history of the game, surely expected to be given an upgraded roster by his team's front office brain trust, apparently comprising vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, possibly three Buss kids, Kurt and Linda Rambis, and new head coach Darvin Ham.
The clearest path to that upgrade? Trading the $47.1 million expiring contract of ex-All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook, and probably one or two future first-round draft picks, to surround LeBron James and his fellow All-Star, oft-injured center/power forward Anthony Davis (who, invariably, is injured again) with talent that fit their skillsets -- namely, solid defenders and shooters. A trade with the Indiana Pacers for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield seemed like the best fit.
But a timeline for jumping on a trade has been getting pushed back all year, amid chatter that the Lakers don't want to make a move unless they think it will help the team return to a contending level or they're getting an All-Star back. It's pretty remarkable how fall this club has fallen from that. After winning it all in 2020, this club has been systematically dismantled around James and Davis, who are the only two players left from that championship club. Even that era's head coach, Frank Vogel, was kicked to the curb!
And, after dropping plenty of hints about his overall dissatisfaction with his teammates over the past few months, LeBron James finally dropped the hammer (via Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register) tonight, following the team's 112-98 loss to the team it beat in the 2020 NBA Finals, the Miami Heat.
"I'm a winner," James said. "And I want to win and give myself a chance to win and still compete for championships... And I know it takes steps to get there, but once you get there and know how to get there, playing basketball at this level just to be playing basketball is not in my DNA. It's not in my DNA anymore."
"I think about [how] I don't want to finish my career playing at this level from a team aspect. I'll still be able to be [competing] for championships because I know what I can still bring to any ball club with the right pieces.""
That last bit -- "I know what I can still bring to any ball club with the right pieces" -- seems to be something of a veiled threat against the Lakers, who, one could infer from the rest of his comments (also by, you know, the losing product on the floor game-to-game) lack those right pieces. James is not tradable until the 2023 offseason, but will he force his way out of town one season after signing a deal to stick around?
Probably. Why would he want to stick around? The Lakers would have plenty of takers, even for a 38-year-old LeBron James on the cusp of his 21st season. They could restock their depleted draft capital and try to officially rebuild the team, either around Davis or by starting totally fresh.
Honestly, this writer is a bit stunned the Lakers' miserable 14-21 season start got as far as it did before this happened.
James himself may no longer be the two-way behemoth he was in his Cleveland Cavaliers or Miami Heat days, but he remains one of the NBA's elite scorers. He just can't lift a team to a championship pedigree the way he did in the past, especially with a few relatively underwhelming Cavs clubs that went to the Finals in 2007 and 2018. James is not quite that guy anymore, but he's still a terrific talent. He needs more help, and the Lakers have thus far been reticent to give him that help. Will his pleas tonight change that? He has been critical of the club's roster before. But his valid appraisals been falling on deaf ears so far this season, but this feels like a new level of (understandable) frustration.
We'll find out soon enough: the trade deadline is February 9th.
