Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James’ complicated legacy with Laker fans

LeBron James is not just the face of the Los Angeles Lakers, not just the face of basketball, but the face of all American sports. He was ranked second on ESPN’s World Fame 100 2019 list, trailing only Portuguese soccer superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo.

While it can now be legitimately debated if he is still the best player in the league, LeBron was the best player in the NBA for an entire decade. He is going to go down as one of the three best players of all-time with all-around career statistics that are going to be studied for years to come.

The one “knock” on James’ legacy is that he did not carve out a career on one team. Michael Jordan had the Bulls, Kobe Bryant had the Lakers, Bill Russell had the Celtics. There are other NBA legends that have switched teams, but LeBron is the figurehead of this new era in the NBA where team loyalty is a thing of the past.

LeBron James is the face of the player empowerment era, which is going to complicate his legacy with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Before LeBron James joined the Los Angeles Lakers he was not one of the most beloved players by Laker fans. In fact, prior to James signing, he was one of the most disliked players in the entire league.

While this is not true of every Laker fan, there definitely was something there. Ben Teitelbaum of Sports Illustrated wrote a column about being a Laker fan who was unhappy when the team signed LeBron James. Teitelbaum’s comments likely rang true for many Laker fans, who faced the double-edged sword of finally having a superstar but having that star be LeBron James.

"“It feels weird to have to root for a guy I’ve rooted against forever, especially when I’m his sloppy thirds. Ever since The Decision and James’ early-Miami villainy, I’ve been on the anti-LeBron bandwagon and I haven’t gotten off. Cheering against LeBron somehow became an irrational part of my basketball identity.”"

Teitelbaum is not alone with those sentiments. While he does not represent the entire Laker fanbase, Laker fans, are general NBA fans, started to dislike LeBron James after he “moved to the dark side” by joining the Miami Heat.

Begin the player empowerment era.

It would be unfair to say that Laker fans still despise LeBron James, but if the Lakers had pinstripes like the New York Yankees, plenty of fans would say that LeBron has not yet earned his pinstripes. To earn that honor of becoming a true Laker, he has to win a championship.

But that is where the complicated part of LeBron James’ legacy comes into play. Part of the reason why Laker fans, in particular, rallied against LeBron was because of his “rivalry” with Kobe Bryant.

Kobe and LeBron are two alphas, two all-time greats that have forever etched their names in NBA history books as well as American history books. They are two of the most influential athletes of all-time, with Kobe serving as a huge inspiration to James.

This was a rivalry in the eyes of the fans, not so much between James and Bryant. These two played each other twice a year, never faced off in the playoffs and were simply the best players in their respective conferences for years.

However, what LeBron did (and it was not LeBron’s fault) was take some of the spotlight away from Kobe. Kobe finally got going post-Shaq and was carving his career out and was the best player in the league. In comes a high school kid from St. Vincent Mary High School, who was touted as a better version of Kobe Bryant.

And for many years, that is how LeBron was presented. He was the face of the NBA, despite Kobe Byrant still being in his prime. He was the best player in the league, despite Bryant making three NBA Finals in a row, winning two of them to cement his legacy.

Despite all of LeBron’s shortcomings early in his career and Kobe’s second act success, LeBron became LeBron. He became the villain. He was the guy that was sitting on Kobe’s throne.

At least, that is how it can be interpreted by the fans. So as LeBron moved to Miami, won two championships, and then won another championship in Cleveland, it became clear that he was making his case for being one of the all-time greats.

But even with the media heavily favoring LeBron, even with LeBron’s multiple MVPs, whereas Kobe somehow only won one, Kobe still had one thing on him: championships. And to this day, he still does.

With the unfortunate passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna (please check out the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation) all of this seems trivial, and it really is. The debate on who is the better player does not really mean anything, and is completely subjective, anyways.

However, now that LeBron James is on the Los Angeles Lakers, there is a bit of a conundrum. LeBron can bring championship gold back to the city who has desperately been starved from its winning ways but will rack up his all-time total.

Two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers would give the franchise the all-time lead, tie LeBron with Kobe and unfortunately lead to people, such as Fox Sports 1’s Nick Wright, who would then egregiously claim that LeBron James is the greatest Laker of all-time for what he did late in his career.

Kobe Byrant is the greatest Laker of all-time. It does not matter what LeBron James does, that will never change.

But if those comments do arise, and they certainly will, it will only further continue to complicate LeBron’s legacy with the Los Angeles Lakers as the most disliked yet beloved superstar in team history.