Los Angeles Lakers: Predicting post-LeBron James agreement starting 5
Power Forward: LeBron James
A new era of Lakers basketball has begun. LeBron will now be wearing purple and gold, and the West figures to be as competitive as ever. More importantly, Los Angeles has officially returned to relevance after years of historic lows for the franchise.
People will try to spin this as a negative for the Lakers. Maybe James won’t fit with Ball? Or LeBron will be too ball-dominant, stalling the development of the team’s young core? How about he’s an aging star who’s about to hit a wall? Come on now; James is still the best basketball player in the world, and he’s not ready to slow down.
This acquisition catapults the Lakers into the Western Conference’s top group of clubs. As we saw this past season, James is capable of carrying a subpar team to the NBA Finals. Well, as it so happens, the Lakers were a better team than they get credit for before he arrived. Now, he wraps it all up and brings his championship pedigree to Hollywood.
Magic knew he needed a ringer to complete his overnight turnaround. That’s why he set up his secret meeting with James the night free agency opened. It seems as though it worked as he had hoped, locking up the greatest NBA player of this generation.
How did the Lakers close this? Magic Johnson went to one of LeBron’s houses in LA late Saturday night and met with him for several hours.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 2, 2018
This was a very hush-hush operation. Lakers knew they needed to give Bron space to decide and announce it as he wanted. None of us reporters could even confirm they’d been in touch whereas calls with Cavs & Sixers leaked. Says something on the discipline for all involved
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 2, 2018
Some more context to the Magic-LeBron meeting Saturday night. LBJ was already strongly considering the Lakers but wanted to look Magic in the eye and see if they could find a trust before making a decision, per sources close to the situation.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 2, 2018
If the Lakers end up winning a ring in the next couple of years, James will get most of the credit. In reality, though, it largely belongs to Magic. In just over a year, he’s taken this roster and turned it into something special.
Big things lie ahead for the Lake Show.