Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson does not owe LeBron James an explanation on exit
By Ronald Agers
LeBron James has underestimated his position since he left Cleveland!
LeBron James dynamic throughout his career has been different from many NBA players in this era. For some reason, the narrative is that teams have to fit their business plans around LeBron James instead of the other way around.
Think about James Harden, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, players that are legitimate superstars. Do they hold their franchises to specific ways of doing things for the franchise to be successful? No.
When LeBron James started his first tenure in Cleveland, he raised the accomplishments of the Cavaliers to an all-time high. Couple that with the fact that he was a hometown hero, LeBron James started to gain a level of power that he took advantage of.
He used that power to get coaches fired. He got players traded. He basically used his influence to gain power within the organizations that were weak in the front office.
In Cleveland, it was easy because of the influx of general managers in the front office. Dan Gilbert has never extended contracts of his GM’s. LeBron was the constant presence early in his career and took advantage of it.
In Miami, that was not the case, because Pat Riley was a fixture in the front office and was not going anywhere. At that time, LeBron James was not a “high-ranking official” in a sense in the Heat organization. The structure and plan were already set by the time James had gotten to Miami.
Dwyane Wade was the leader in the locker room along with Udonis Haslem. Wade had a long-standing relationship with head coach Eric Spoelstra. Couple that with Spoelstra’s ironclad backing of Pat Riley, LeBron James could not disturb the dynamic.
Maybe that’s why LeBron James would leave easily the best-constructed squads of his career to get back to Cleveland. It was not about winning at that point. It was about power. Something he has very little of in Los Angeles these days.
Since we are talking about LeBron James and his exits in his career, let’s take a look and see if he has any say so in how anyone decides to leave a franchise.