The Los Angeles Lakers have ended their season with a 33-49 record. I just did a video/article where I proved that the 2021-22 season is the most disappointing season in franchise history. Some people are going as far as to say it’s the most disappointing in NBA history. I’m not willing to go that far, but one thing we can all agree on is that no one predicted that the Lakers would be in this position. So with this season coming to a close, we are now entering the final season of LeBron’s 5-year contract. Here’s what he has accomplished: He won a championship. He won the Finals MVP of the 2020 bubble title. The Lakers got bounced from the first round in 2021, and the Lakers failed to reach the postseason in 2019 and this year. So with another disappointing season under his belt, I think the next question that we’re going to ask is a fair one. Has LeBron James underachieved since he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers?
The answer is yes. Now a couple of things that we need to keep in mind. I’m in no way trying to indicate that I’m not appreciative of the title he won for the Lakers. I understand that the Lakers don’t bring in Anthony Davis if LeBron didn’t sign with the franchise first, and the Lakers don’t win the title in 2020 without the legendary performance by LeBron. In fact, I have his 2020 playoff run deep in my top 50 of the greatest playoff runs by a player in history in my “All-Time Greatest NBA Book”. LeBron James also had an MVP caliber season in the 2019-20 season, while leading the league in assists. The dude was a monster that season. That is something that none of us can deny. I would never just dismiss all that just because we had a disappointing season this year.
Here’s why at this point LeBron has underachieved. He is playing for the most successful franchise of the last 50 years. There is no other team in the history of the sport that has employed more legendary players throughout its history. And you may say, well Jerry West only won 1 title, Wilt Chamberlain only won 1 title with the Lakers, and Elgin Baylor never won a title. Here’s the difference though. Jerry West and Elgin Baylor went to the Finals 7 times in his career. Jerry West went to the Finals 9 times in his career. These were players that never played for any other franchise and the Lakers were competing for a championship every year that they were there. So LeBron can’t compare with that. A better comparison would be Wilt Chamberlain. He also signed with the Lakers late in his career, and he played with the Lakers for 5 years. I’m willing to bet LeBron is only going to last that long with the franchise. For those five years, the Lakers won a title and went to the Finals three other times. In fact, there were two different years where the Lakers were only one game away from winning the title. They were always in the hunt to win the title, and that’s all you can ask for. LeBron can only say that for just one year, which was the year the Lakers won it.
But for all of you reading this article, I’m willing to bet no one was alive when Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt were playing. For some of you, you were alive when Kareem and Magic were playing. And what did they do? They won 5 titles. Now for the majority of us, we were alive when Shaq and Kobe were dominating the league. What did they do? Shaq won three titles and three Finals MVPs, and Kobe won five titles. These were players that won multiple championships. That’s the bar that these legendary players set. Championships with an “S” in the end. That’s what we’re used to. So now you bring one of the greatest players to ever play the game, and for some, he’s the GOAT, and you only get past the first round one time in four years?! How are we supposed to take that? We take it as an underachievement, as crazy and as unreasonable as that may seem.
One final thing has caused many Lakers fans to have a negative perception of LeBron’s tenure. I call this the Kobe Bryant effect. Keep in mind that this argument has nothing to do with Kobe fans thinking that LeBron would never pass him in the GOAT debate or whatever silly rivalry these fans have. Laker nation is currently a divided nation, and some Kobe fans haven’t fully embraced LeBron James, and in all honesty, never will. For those who don’t understand this conundrum, let me explain this to everyone. FYI, I was one of the few that did embrace them and was ecstatic the moment we signed him. I am not part of this club, but I can speak for them. I do share part of their sentiment.
Kobe Bryant set a bar that will be impossible for any great player to reach. It’s not just the numbers. It’s not just the championships. Forget about all that, because we all know what he accomplished. Obviously, LeBron was never going to accomplish all that at the advanced stage of his career for the Lakers. So that’s not a fair expectation, but it’s the way Kobe Bryant carried himself. It was his “win at all costs” mentality that we were accustomed to seeing. When the Lakers were struggling in 2013 with all that talent on the roster, he guaranteed the Lakers would make the playoffs. He put the pressure on his teammates, but he backed it up. So in the last 7 games that he played that season, he played over 40 minutes every time to ensure a victory. It meant his body breaking down, but that’s what he was willing to risk. He gave it his all every time he stepped on the court, and he couldn’t accept anything less. That’s what we saw for 20 years. That was true even after he tore his Achilles.
I have a quick story to share with you that exemplifies that. In December of 2014, I went to see the Lakers play in Indianapolis, and the Lakers were getting torched! The score was 27 to 60 going into halftime. The game was all over because they were just a pathetic squad. But what I saw for the next 12 minutes of game action is the reason why Kobe Bryant is my favorite player. He recognized that the hole was too deep for the Lakers to come out of and he was most likely going to have to sit out the fourth quarter. Bankers Life Fieldhouse was full of Lakers fans trying to take advantage of watching their favorite player play live because we knew he didn’t have many years left. I’m willing to bet that Kobe knew this, so it seemed like he made it a mission to give the Pacers hell for the next 12 minutes. There were times when Kobe was guarding his man 90-feet out, and there were two times he caused a turnover before the ball-handler could reach half-court. He was attacking the rim, and he even gave us a vintage drive to the hoop where he dunked the ball while drawing the foul. It was like it was his way of saying, “I’m sorry we’re playing like crap, but I promise I won’t let you all leave empty-handed.” The Lakers ended up losing by 19 points and Kobe did not play in the fourth quarter. It was a meaningless game, but it’s a moment that I’ll never forget. I learned something new about this player that I never would have noticed if I wasn’t in the building that night. I gained even greater respect from this player, who refused to give up in a meaningless game at the age of 36.
Then I got to see LeBron James play for the first time in Indianapolis in 2019 as a member of the Lakers. This was around the time when there were a lot of rumors circulating that the Lakers were going to make a push to trade for Anthony Davis. So this young core of players that consisted of Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Lonzo Ball, who was supposed to be the future of this franchise, was now uncertain of their future with the team. That all led to the worst defeat of LeBron James’ career. And of course, that was the first time I ever saw this legendary player live. But that’s fine with me. I’ve seen way too many games live where the game was over by the third quarter. It happens. But I wanted to see how LeBron responded to all that after the Lakers were down 46 to 69 at half-time. Would I see something similar that Kobe gave me in a similar situation? No, it was quite the opposite. I saw someone give up. I saw someone who played half-heartedly. I saw someone who didn’t want to be there. And that was obvious when we saw LeBron sitting by himself on the bench with none of his teammates around him. It was a sight that I also would never forget.
So say what you want about Kobe. Was he selfish at times? Yes. Was he too preoccupied at times with reaching personal ambitions and goals throughout the course of a season? Yes. Those were all things he was guilty of. Just like every other player, he had his flaws. But if Kobe was not winning at the end of the game, he could honestly care less about anything else. I’ve seen it so many times when observing the way he acted with reporters after games. If he happened to have a big scoring night, but it resulted in defeat, Kobe was grouchy and was bitingly sarcastic with them. And it also seemed like he wanted to bite off the heads of all his teammates. He was miserable because they didn’t get the job done. He was selfish, but nothing was more important to him than winning. We all got the sense of that, so that’s why we were ok with his playing style and his personality. How could we complain about someone who is that obsessive about winning?
If you were to ask any fan of the Lakers if they get that same sense with LeBron James, I’m willing to bet that you would get mixed results. We can point to the 2021 first-round series against the Phoenix Suns where it seemed like LeBron James gave up in the series-clinching game 6. This was against the same team where Chris Paul refused to sit out any games while playing with one bad arm. And then we have this disaster of a season. With the Lakers racking up Ls after Ls, it didn’t leave a good impression among “day one” Lakers fans that LeBron James celebrated certain achievements and milestones that he accomplished throughout the year, even after defeat. That’s something that we’re not used to. It’s not Kobe-esque. No one’s questioning LeBron’s desire to win ball games. He wouldn’t be this great if he didn’t care that much. He wouldn’t be averaging over 30 points per game at the age of 37 if he didn’t care.
What Lakers fans were questioning when he decided to take his talents to Hollywood is if he would give the purple and gold everything. You can star in all the movies that you want. We had Shaq that was doing the same thing when he signed with the Lakers in the late 90s. You can make as many appearances on TV shows that you like. Lamar Odom was no stranger to that, and even Kobe Bryant had many cameos on various TV shows. That all comes with the territory when you play with the Lakers. But these were players that had the reputation of trashing locker rooms and snarking at teammates when the job didn’t get done. They gave us the peace of mind that our star players were going to put winning above everything else.
The unfortunate thing for LeBron James is that he’s following up a player that is the most obsessive and maniacal competitor since Michael Jordan. There are very few players in the history of the league that is wired like that. For a player that will be playing in his 20th season and will be turning 38 years old next season, you can’t expect him to care that much. No one can after that many years, especially for a player that didn’t dream of wearing the purple and gold since he was a child and that owns countless NBA records. But that’s the legacy that Kobe Bryant built, and it’s the standard that we expect from every future NBA star that puts on that Lakers jersey. It’s not just about the numbers. Hell, it’s not just that you won a championship. Are you going to give the most decorated franchise and its city everything you got? Blood, sweat, tears, body, and even health. If you do, the titles would then soon follow. We were doing the same thing to Shaq before Phil Jackson came to the town.
So as much as people think Lakers fans view every season as a disappointment if it doesn’t end with a title is wrong. In fact, I can almost guarantee that the Lakers will not win a title next season. I don’t believe it’s logical to say that a 38-year-old player can lead a team to a championship. Anthony Davis is going to have to take the keys to the car and drive us there, but it’s even less logical to say that Anthony Davis will be healthy and play all 82 games of the season. And don’t even get me started with what we’re going to do with Russell Westbrook. There are just too many question marks with this team. So I don’t think anyone is planning a parade in Los Angeles.
All that we ask is that you give the impression that nothing else matters but winning. Failing to reach the postseason in half of your tenure here is unacceptable. It should be driving you crazy like it’s driving us crazy. I honestly didn’t expect LeBron to win more than one championship during his time with the Lakers. My expectations have honestly been met. But for a large portion of Lakers nation that was skeptical about the arrival of LeBron James, they want to see more. Maybe not a title, but a Kobe-esque season. And we’re not talking about the numbers. We’re talking about your will to win and not accepting anything else. We will then follow your lead. The question is, what is LeBron playing for at this stage of his career?
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