LeBron James and the Lakers may have the most to lose in a lost season

Nobody stands to gain in a lost NBA season if the COVID-19 pandemic eventually causes its cancelation. However, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers may have the most to lose.

Nobody wins in a lost season. There’s no silver lining if COVID-19 ultimately causes the cancelation of the 2019-20 NBA season, a possibility which is impossible to eliminate at this point. Out of everybody that stands to lose out in a lost season, however, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers may actually have the most to lose.

In LeBron’s 17th season, he was having an all-timer of a year when the NBA suspended its campaign almost a month ago. Averaging 25.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and a league-leading 10.6 assists, just about any player other than LeBron himself at his peak would be delighted with what would surely be a career-best season.

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His output does pale in comparison to some of his best years (other than that insane assist total, 1.6 per game more than his previous best two seasons ago with the Cleveland Cavaliers), but it’s nearly unfathomable to produce like this in the 17th year of any career.

In fact, using win shares as a metric, this is the fifth-best 17th season in NBA history. LeBron’s 9.5 is overshadowed by Kobe Bryant at 10.9, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and John Stockton at 10.8 and Karl Malone at 9.8. Of course, they had full seasons with which to build their resumes, and at this point, LeBron only has 60 games under his belt this season.

Using that same metric, production for even the greatest drops in season 18. The best 18th seasons ever in win shares belong to Karl Malone (who actually got better at 11.1), Stockton at 10.7 and Tim Duncan at 9.6. Four and five drop to Moses Malone and Abdul-Jabbar at 7.8 and 7.5.

For years we’ve known that the timeless onslaught of LeBron James on the NBA’s record books would one day come to an end, but we’ve also long been able to take comfort in the fact that day was not yet at hand. Wiping this season out insidiously draws us nigh to the eventual end, and tacking a COVID-19 asterisk at the end of one of the greatest seasons at this late stage of one of the greatest careers in NBA history would be a true shame.

Of course, compared to the global stakes of this pandemic, what happens to LeBron James and the NBA’s season doesn’t mean much. But in the landscape of NBA basketball, it will remain one of the great disappointments in the history of the league.

The coming battle between the Los Angeles Lakers and Kawhi Leonard‘s LA Clippers may never even happen, depending on how long things take to get back to normal for the NBA, let alone a potential Finals matchup between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

There are many losers in the NBA right now as a result of this shutdown, but LeBron and those of us who were eager to see how his 17th season would play out are among those who lose the most.