LeBron James: Can he do a Space Jam sequel on the court?

Space Jam 2 creates mores parallels between LeBron James and Michael Jordan.

LeBron James comparisons have been made off and on since ESPN started the Michael Jordan “The Last Dance” documentary last month. How about Space Jam? Last Sunday, the documentary explained Jordan’s rise while filming the movie with training and pickup games. Can LeBron have the same success this year? Lake Show Life compares eras.

The LeBron James and Michael Jordan comparisons will officially end this weekend. For a little while at least.

This upcoming weekend seems to be a transitional period for ESPN and the NBA overall. This Sunday will feature the last two episodes of the Michael Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance”. While the NBA season was suspended, the episodes for the last month was a much-needed distraction for fans while Adam Silver, the NBA execs and the NBAPA worked on a plan to try and finish the season to crown an NBA champion.

The NBA challenges mirror the ones that we all in society face. The questions of testing of not only the players but all parties involved to deliver the NBA product to fans in a safe manner. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, it looks evident that options are being discussed. For the first time since the hiatus started, steps are being reported on possibilities.

Up until now, most of the news reports have been focused fully on issues such as health, safety and logistics. But has anyone noticed that the players have been left out of the talks? Have they been in the loop? Sure, but this week is the first time that the player representatives have been in the news as a part of the mix.

This week, a group of superstars that included LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and union president Chris Paul recently held a private conference call with Adam Silver to talk about the possibility of continuing the season. The NBA superstars were in agreement that they want to figure out a way to finish the season, according to a report from Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.

"Toward the end of the call discussing the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic, all parties were in agreement to take the court with proper safety measures once the league is given the green light to commence, sources said."

Now that it seems that presumably all parties want to play, now they have to deal with the factors that make this exercise a challenge. These are just some just to get started.

• Where will be the locations that the games will be played. It’s reported it will be either in Orlando, Florida.,Las Vegas or both.
• How about from a competitiveness standpoint? Some states are dealing with stricter social distancing guidelines than others while teams that have nothing to play for may balk at coming back to play.
• While there’s little doubt that some players want to get back on the court as soon as possible, the health crisis still very real. It will be interesting to see what the players are willing to do when the decision eventually comes down.

Adam Silver made it clear to players that he couldn’t guarantee their safety. Again according to Chris Haynes.

"In a conference call with players on Friday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated that he couldn’t guarantee the safety of the players if play resumed in a city where they would be quarantined, but assured them the league would do everything in its power to make the safest conditions possible, sources said. That didn’t sit well with some players, sources said, with a vaccine not expected to be available for a year or two."

Los Angeles Lakers veteran Jared Dudley has been consistent with his takes on Twitter to express his thoughts about wanting to finish the season, stressing safety must come first. Lake Show Life discussed his thoughts from the very beginning.

Good news Los Angeles Lakers fans. Start wrapping your minds around the NBA season starting again. When? Who knows. But two things show subliminal messages that we are now going in this direction.

First, Chris B. Haynes and Marcellus Wiley breaks it down from the human aspect of Speak For Yourself. Haynes’s statement about the politics of dealing with the superstars speaks for itself.

Financially, reports came out speculating the financial ramifications of how much the NBA tends to lose if the season stops and there is no postseason.

"According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, approximately $900 million in television revenue would be lost if the NBA canceled the playoffs. That does not include the revenue that will be lost from local television deals if the regular season does not resume. Regional sports networks are owed at least 70 games in those deals, and most teams are currently in the mid-60s."

Let’s all welcome back LeBron James to the spotlight on Monday morning. After the Jordan documentary is over, the G.O.A.T. conversations will take a back seat to championship analysis and these questions.

• Can the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Los Angeles Clippers? Nothing new. That conversation was hot before the hiatus.
• Will LeBron James be able to catch Giannis Antetokounmpo in the MVP race?
• Will the layoff affect LeBron James after his resurgence this year?
• If the Lakers collapse early in the playoffs, will it affect LeBron James and his total legacy?
• Can LeBron James carry all of the playmaking duties?

Get the connection? When the season, resumes all eyes will be on the championship aspirations and the face of the league in NBA to provide the drama for the playoffs. Man, it’s plain to see that Lake Show Life and especially the NBA missed this guy in the news cycles these days.

With the transition from “The Last Dance” to anticipation to restart the NBA season, it’s time for the site to do the same. For weeks Lake Show Life has done articles tying the Los Angeles Lakers to the documentary.

• The Last Dance: Did a Laker keep Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team?
• LeBron James: Could he survive Dennis Rodman and the Bad Boys?
• Lakers Rumors: What to really expect from a Kobe Bryant documentary
• Los Angeles Lakers: Why Shaquille O’Neal is wrong about the Bulls
• The Last Dance: LeBron fans, do us a favor and don’t make it about him!

This time, LeBron James is subliminally tied into last weekend’s episode. Is it a G.O.A.T. conversation? No (Michael Jordan is better than LeBron James!). But if LeBron can lead the Lakers to the NBA championship, he will have accomplished something Michael Jordan did.

What is that feat? Let’s go back to last weekend.