Lakers News: NBA World Reacts To LeBron James' Potential Retirement
Yesterday, despite a 40-point, 10-rebound, nine-assist night courtesy of All-NBA small forward LeBron James, your Los Angeles Lakers fell, 113-111, in the waning seconds of a must-win Game 4 to the Denver Nuggets. With the loss, the Lakers also were eliminated from playoff contention in a four-game Western Conference Finals sweep.
But the LA news cycle didn't end there. Far from it.
Instead, the 38-year-old James practically broke the Internet by revealing that he was considering calling it a career following the end of his 20th NBA season.
Comedian C.J. Toledano joked about the fact that the James news had instantly dwarfed what probably should be the main story, the dominance of Denver and, on the other side of the bracket, the Miami Heat:
Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer posited that James was floating the possibility of a retirement to intimidate the Lakers front office into trading for another past-his-prime star point guard who doesn't play defense (because we all remember how well that worked last time):
Complex Sports went for a throwback reference:
Portland Trail Blazers beat reporter Sean Highkin, stationed in the hometown of LeBron's most important corporate partner, relayed his own skepticism:
Rob Perez mapped out a positively MJ-esque retirement-and-comeback scheme for LBJ:
Sportsnet 590 The FAN's Alex Wong joked about an imagined hypothetical conversation between Disney/ESPN CEO Bob Iger and Adam Silver, seen chatting at the game:
"Primo" showrunner Shea Serrano, also the writer of the New York Times bestseller "Basketball (And Other Things)" and a lifelong San Antonio Spurs fan, noted his trepidations about a post-LeBron NBA:
Molly Morrison of Bleacher Report pled for James to stick around at least a while longer:
Sportswear designer Golden Knight also joked about how LeBron James pettily reshaped the NBA news cycle:
Retirement feels like somewhat of a drastic step for a guy who just wrapped up his season leading his team to the Western Conference Finals. Perhaps he should listen to our advice from earlier this season and consider load management first.
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