Of all the calculated maneuvers by LeBron James during his eight years with the Lakers, he saved his smartest for last.
He left before the door could hit him in the butt.
He knew the Lakers didn’t want him back, so he skipped out before they had a chance to say good-bye.
He leaked the news alone, before the Lakers could publicly confirm, because he wanted to sell that this was his decision, when it absolutely was not.
This was not his idea. This was not his call. This was the Lakers saying, enough is enough. This was the Lakers saying, we want our team back.
This was arguably the greatest player in basketball getting the message and getting out before they threw him out.
Officially, on Tuesday, James informed the Lakers that he’s going to leave them as a free agent and finish his career elsewhere.
Unofficially, yay!
LeBron is gone, and he left without a fight, and the Lakers couldn’t be luckier.
LeBron is history, and it didn’t cost the Lakers a penny, and now they can breath again.
“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said on social media after the news dropped Tuesday morning. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers — including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”
Cherished, but gone, and thank goodness somebody over there had the conviction to let history walk.
Kudos to the new Lakers ownership for resisting every business impulse in their body to keep him while summoning the strength to stare down the most famous basketball player in the world and tell him to hit the road.
They could have been suckered into signing him just to throw him a grand farewell tour. They weren’t.
They could have been fooled by the 15-2 success he enjoyed when playing with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves during that glorious month this spring. They weren’t.
They could have, as with past Laker regimes, simply been bullied by Rich Paul and his cronies. They weren’t.
They didn’t even make him an offer!
In losing LeBron, the Lakers reclaimed a bit of their soul. In letting LeBron leave, they sent a clear message to everyone who stayed.
This team belongs to Luka. This team belongs to the future. This team again belongs to the Lakers.
“Truly a honor to wear the (purple and gold),” James posted on social media. “Hope I made a few proud during my stint.”
He made many proud. He made the Lakers proud. He led them to their only championship in the last 16 years, he became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, and, in his 23rd season, he set all sorts of records for longevity.
In his final glorious act this spring, at age 41, he dragged a shorthanded Lakers team into the second round of the playoffs. His widely acclaimed effort against the Houston Rockets proved he could still play. He was still among the top 20 players in the league.
But, goodness, he drove the Lakers crazy.
His eight-year tenure was filled with quiet demands for roster changes amid veiled threats to leave. The Lakers were so afraid of losing him or displeasing Paul and all of his other star clients that they constantly, sometimes embarrassingly, bowed to the King.
In doing everything from acquiring Russell Westbrook to drafting James’ son Bronny, the Lakers contorted themselves to please their leader.
And for what? Outside of that bubble title in 2020, James never led the Lakers to much of anything. Despite setting some of his records in front of them, he never connected with Lakers fans, perhaps because of the continuous passive-aggressive mind games he played with management.
Here’s guessing he wanted to stay in Los Angeles, and would have eventually accepted a massive pay cut from last year’s $52.6 million. Here’s guessing he would have chosen to remain in the town that contains one of his family homes and many of his businesses for a chance to end his career in a Laker uniform with a farewell celebration that matched the royal ones given the likes of Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
But the Lakers never gave him that choice. As it turns out, even 43,440 points were not enough to endear him to an organization that still prefers to call itself the Lakers and not the LeBrons. While he seemed invincible, LeBron was not indisposable, and now he can take his act to Golden State or Cleveland or somewhere else willing to kiss the ring.
Give him credit, though, for pulling one last move.
LeBron leaked his announcement one day after son Bronny’s $2.3 million contract became fully guaranteed.
Of course he did.
The post LeBron James got out before Lakers could throw him out appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
