In honor of the popular “returning home” narrative in today’s NBA, we take a look at a few homegrown stars who should sign with the Los Angeles Lakers in the future.
We’ve seen it before and we’ll certainly see it again — maybe even with the Los Angeles Lakers. NBA stars have recently made it a thing to sign with their hometown teams, returning to their roots to help the clubs they cheered on as children contend for a title or two.
The fad started with LeBron James, who returned to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers after originally giving them the cold shoulder to create a Big Three with the Miami Heat. Since that fateful day in July 2014, James has delivered a championship to the Cavaliers — a first for the franchise. Dwyane Wade made a similar move last year, but the results weren’t nearly as impressive.
It was also expected that Kevin Durant would do the noble thing and sign with the Washington Wizards. Instead, he joined the Golden State Warriors with his sights set on a ring. Even though that instance didn’t have a fairytale ending for the hometown team, it’s still a common assumption that local ties will play a role in free agency decisions.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a look at a few products of the Los Angeles area who could end their careers with the Lakers. All are scheduled to be free agents at different times, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t decide to take their talents back to SoCal before calling it a career.
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So without further ado, let’s look at five local legends who could definitely be on the Lakers’ radar when they eventually hit free agency. There’s obviously no guarantee that anything will ever materialize with these stars, but it’ll be an interesting storyline to follow nonetheless.