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LOS ANGELES – All parking spaces in the practice area have been filled, with television trucks pouring into the surrounding streets in all directions. Each seat of the impromptu press conference was busy, resulting in more than 100 members of the media forming a semicircular space-shaped task around the podium. Each of his moves – from the first glimpse of his new yellow jersey to several photo shoots and half a dozen conversations – was documented by a group of traveling tweeters and Instagrammers. During a 12-minute group interview, each of his words was broadcast live on national television.
Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images
LeBron James guaranteed this conflagration by announcing his decision to join the Lakers in July. At the center of the hype Monday, L.A.'s most recent icon was serious and spoke in a measured tone, showing restraint rather than accelerating into an inevitable madness. In an exchange, James appeared upset when asked if his decision to join the Lakers was motivated by his out-of-court efforts. He responded with a scalpel rather than a sword, claiming that his family and his correspondence with the Lakers were his only motivators. "I am a basketball player," said James. "I play ball. That's what I do. That's what I live. As far as my business is concerned, these things took care of themselves before coming here to be part of the Lakers. "
Meanwhile, cognitive dissonance was looming all around him. Lonzo Ball, last year's Media Day, was rejected in favor of the biggest story. Rajon Rondo, the former Celtic, caused disbelief in the insects by wearing a Lakers jersey. Lance Stephenson, proudly wearing personalized sneakers wearing his jersey numberlaughed when asked if he had discussed the infamous incident with his new teammate and former rival. (He did not do it.) Coach Luke Walton, who has not won more than 35 games in a single season in his two years in Los Angeles, smiled at the idea of coaching " the best player of the match ". first of many comparisons of Kobe Bryant.
"He knows what time it is," Walton said when asked about James' face on Monday. "It has been around for many years. He sets the tone. It's time to work. I've already seen that at someone I played with, who knows that the season is fast approaching. "
But after nearly three months of frenzied anticipation of outsiders, James and the Lakers are still unsure of what to do to each other. "I'm not expecting anything," said James, questioned about his prospects for the coming season. "It's the unknown." Walton was not ready to commit to a starting five, and he added that he was "not desperate" to repair a certain rotation. Key issues, such as how fast the Lakers plan to play, how often they want to deploy small ball alignments, and how to manage James' minutes, were discussed in vague and uncompromising terms.
This lab experience will not be rushed, although the constant pressure on James to complete his ring account accompanied him to L.A.
"I do not think the only way to make a successful season is to win a championship," said James. "We are a new ball club that meets. … we have to take our bumps and bruises. There will be good times and bad times. That's what happens with a new team. If we continue to work the process and continue to sacrifice each other and to make the commitment and the time necessary to be great, everything else will come into place. "
Despite the intensity of the attention that greeted him, one could say that the movement of James's off-season has diminished, or at least reshaped, the pressure he faces. In Cleveland, he was the hunted, defending his series of eight consecutive appearances in the final of the Celtics, Sixers and Raptors. In L.A., without an All-Star sidekick and even less a Superteam, he is now the hunter, free to target the Warriors and Rockets as a true underdog. While the NBA was predicting that Warriors / Lakers would be the star game on Christmas Day and MLK Jr. Day, James escaped any competition and did everything possible to improve the quality of the competition.
"We have a long way to go to Golden State," he said. "They can go back to training camp. We start from scratch. We can not worry about what Golden State does. They are the champions. They have been together for a few years. We put that aside. We can only focus on what we can do to improve ourselves as a Lakers franchise and, hopefully, we can one day put ourselves in a position to compete for a championship.
This cautious tone marked a clear shift from his days in Cleveland, where Golden State stars were at the base of the Halloween gravestones and the Cavaliers spent last season, even after Kyrie Irving's trade, to pursue a title by any means. On his first day at LA, somewhere between the camera wall and the waves of microphones, James found what he was looking for: a reset button.
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