Things have not been going well for the Los Angeles Lakers, who are currently one of the bottom teams in the Western Conference with a 14-21 record. The Lakers were already playing a shaky brand of basketball before Anthony Davis got hurt and since his injury, it has been a freefall for the purple and gold.
Wednesday’s loss to the Miami Heat was particularly disheartening as the Lakers were outplayed from whistle to whistle. Miami controlled the game through all four quarters and walked away with a breezy 112-98 victory.
The game itself isn’t what garnered headlines, though, it was LeBron James’ post-game comments. Following yet another disappointing outcome, LeBron made it clear that he is not trying to play this level of basketball and still wants to contend for championships late in his career.
LeBron has had enough, it's about time pic.twitter.com/DWtjX5UzaG
— Russ' TD ⚡ (@RussFcb) December 29, 2022
LeBron James playing victim during the Lakers’ struggles is tone-deaf.
Look, there is no denying that the Los Angeles Lakers do not have a very talented roster and are playing bad basketball. There also is no denying that management and ownership have not run a tight ship the last few years and have done an awful, awful job.
This is by no means a piece that is meant to defend Rob Pelinka and the job he has done. Quite frankly, the only reason Pelinka and Jeanie Buss even have a championship is because LeBron James wanted to live in Los Angeles and build his media empire and chose to play for the Lakers.
LeBron absolutely deserves a lot of the credit for getting the Lakers a championship in 2020, but he also deserves a lot of the credit for how quickly this team has freefallen. Trying to play the victim like he doesn’t have his imprint all over this roster is absurd.
The 2020-21 season was simply an unfortunate one. That was a really talented roster that was hit with injuries at the wrong time. If Anthony Davis doesn’t get hurt in the playoffs then the Lakers probably would have made the NBA Finals. That’s basketball.
However, everything that has happened since then was sparked by the Russell Westbrook trade; a trade that cash-strapped the team and limited the assets they could bring in for a bad fit. Who was the one reportedly making a big push to acquire Westbrook? LeBron James.
LeBron fully believed in last year’s team and he can’t tell you otherwise. Before the season he tweeted how the old roster was going to prove everyone wrong. That obviously didn’t work out despite how much LeBron believed and he later deleted the tweet.
Then we fast-forward to this season. Los Angeles was limited in who they could bring in and who did the team sign? Klutch Sports clients. Lonnie Walker IV, Troy Brown Jr and Juan Toscano-Anderson are all Klutch clients. Are we really going to pretend like that is a coincidence and that Klutch had absolutely no say in the matter?
As much as LeBron James complains, the fact of the matter is that a trade for Buddy Hield and Myles Turner wasn’t going to change the trajectory of this basketball team. Los Angeles still would have been booted in the first two rounds of the playoffs and would lose two of the most valuable picks in the league as a result.
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LeBron isn’t getting his way and it is frustrating, but it is hard to complain when the Lakers have literally given him everything he has wanted up to this point which has resulted in this ugly basketball team.