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LeBron James’ latest Lakers prediction might be his worst one yet

By Jason Reed

DALLAS, TX - DECEMBER 25: LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers shoots the ball as Tim Hardaway Jr. #11 of the Dallas Mavericks defends in the first half at American Airlines Center on December 25, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - DECEMBER 25: LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers shoots the ball as Tim Hardaway Jr. #11 of the Dallas Mavericks defends in the first half at American Airlines Center on December 25, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) /
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LeBron James has been the face of the NBA for nearly two decades and obviously gets a lot of attention as a result. While the Los Angeles Lakers superstar gets a lot of unfair criticism, he also rightfully gets teased when he deserves it.

It has become a recent trend (and joke) to point out all of the times that LeBron says he predicted something would happen as a white lie. These white lies are not serious and don’t make LeBron a bad person, they are just funny to laugh about with how ridiculous they can be.

I mean, c’mon. The guy said that he knew Kobe Bryant was going to score 81 points the night that he did it. Trying to say that you predicted someone would score the second-most points of all time on a very specific night is a huge stretch.

Even with all these harmless white lies, the most painful LeBron predictions are always the ones about his team. Prior to last season he tweeted (and deleted) about all the doubters and said to keep that same energy. This time around, LeBron issued a promise that now looks pretty shaky in hindsight, and could soon be deleted as a result.

Spoiler alert: LeBron James and the Lakers are probably missing the playoffs.

Anything can happen in the NBA and there is plenty of basketball left to play. That being said, it is hard to imagine a 13-20 team getting better without Anthony Davis, especially if they have to play another 15-20 games without him.

Los Angeles is currently 13th in the Western Conference and is three games back from being a play-in team. They are five games back from escaping the play-in as a sixth seed in the Western Conference.

That might not seem like a large gap but they are only that close because of AD. Last year’s team had a better record when AD got hurt (which was at the exact same time of the season) and look how that panned out.

This year’s team has had a far worse start and without AD it is going to snowball even quicker than last year. By the time Davis returns, the Lakers might be too far back to even consider making the playoffs.

And this is just another painful reminder that this front office has not properly surrounded LeBron James or Anthony Davis with the pieces to contend for a championship. Having an injured superstar will obviously hurt the team, but it shouldn’t completely bottom out the entire season.

The Suns were able to still play well without Devin Booker. The Clippers are the fifth seed despite Kawhi Leonard and Paul George’s injury woes. Those are well-run NBA teams. The Lakers? Not so much.