[ad_1]
LeBron James is the greatest player of this generation, he could be the greatest player of all time, and since Sunday night he is on the Lakers. It's strange to think about it in July, and when LeBron will be in purple and gold, opening the season on national television, I'm sure it will be twice as weird. For now however, Sunday's announcement was far from being as dramatic as the 2010 decision or LeBron 1945-19003 Sports Illustrated Letter in 2014. The news broke when Klutch Sports released a three-line statement: "LeBron James, four NBA MVP three times, MVP three times in the NBA, fourteen-time NBA All-Star and two-time medalist. Olympic gold has signed a $ 154 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers for four years. "
So here you go.
The Lakers have always made the most sense. After years of trial and error with a reconstruction that was not going anywhere, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have played perfectly the last 12 months. It took several trades and a rigorous adherence to a plan that has always been marked this summer, but they have entered the offseason with a cap to recruit two stars, and young players who could be traded to add one third. This was the first time in six years that L.A.'s recruiting grounds were more important than "We have banners and good weather".
In the end, the Lakers were attractive to LeBron for many of the same reasons as the Cavs in 2014. They are rich in assets and perfectly equipped to help LeBron build a superteam for the next phase of his career. The formula in L.A. is logical in a way that alternatives to Houston and Philadelphia have never really done.
For the future, I am excited by this chapter of LeBron's career for a few reasons: 1. The relationship with Kobe will be incredibly strange and entertaining, and even if that experience fails on the ground we get four years to watch these guys interact. 2. If LeBron can take this Lakers team to the final in the next two years, he will likely face Kyrie Irving and the Celtics in a series that will divide the earth in two. 3. This is, without a doubt, the biggest challenge of LeBron's career.
It's hard to imagine for the moment, but it's important to be lucid about the real possibility that LeBron on the Lakers is disappointing. It will probably not be Jordan on the Wizards, but it could certainly become something like Joe Montana on the Chiefs. The main difference with this calendar for Montana – and the reason it's a risk – is that with LeBron it will not be easy to simply claim that none of this has ever happened before. product. The Lakers movement comes after a year when LeBron was more or less universally celebrated as the version of this generation of Jordan. Now, he pushes all those chips down the middle of the table. He will be at the center of the sport no matter what direction it will take.
He was not a perfect player in Cleveland this year, but it did not matter. LeBron has already accomplished so much, and has responded to so many critics, at this point, most smart basketball fans just want to enjoy it. So when the Cavs have won this season, it 's because he' s done something heroic. When the Cavs lost, it was on everyone. He was almost post-critical. Many in the media responded to Cavs' failures by asking why Dan Gilbert would exchange Kyrie Irving when he was not obliged to do so, but few asked why LeBron never went straight to Kyrie and tried to recruit him to stay.
It is fair to wonder how long any criticism of LeBron will read as a blasphemy. He has gathered credible arguments for being superhuman up here, but at one point, his talent will begin to decline over the next few years. He has already stopped playing in defense for long periods of the regular season, and there have been times when it is clear that he is preparing for both ends.
If nothing else, everyone can agree that LeBron will need other stars around him. This will be the most interesting test. Beyond what he's done on the court, half of LeBron's mystique is rooted in his ability to conjure empires wherever he goes. But he is older now, and he is of a different generation than most of the stars he will be recruiting in the next few years. Most of his fellow Banana Boat en route to the league outing, and it remains to be seen whether the chance of playing with LeBron will be as appealing to guys who have not grown up with him.
Kyrie Irving and Paul George have already refused the chance to play with LeBron. It is a dominant presence in a literal sense, but it also applies in the abstract: it is difficult for a young superstar to go beyond a certain level as long as LeBron intends to do it. to be the biggest star on the planet. So while it's probably a bit early to go DEFCON: TAKE with the "Today's stars want to play with LeBron James ??" questions, this is going to be a point of legitimate interest in the next few years. He will need help to stay at the top of the league, and his influence on his peers is more uncertain than in the past. The landing of Kawhi Leonard seems likely, but Kawhi alone is not enough to counter Golden State. What next?
There is also an ineffable quality of risk in all this. While some of LeBron's mystique is rooted in his ability to build superteams – he and heat are the ones that have made this term ubiquitous – what makes him really special is the ability to chart his own course through the world. history of the NBA. He was revolutionary as a business man and team builder to the same extent, and he managed his own career better than anyone could have imagined when He entered the league fifteen years ago. This quality will be in the first paragraph of every LeBron story whenever he retires. On the court and off, he sees paths where nobody else does it.
The Lakers are a path that everyone has seen. After five years of rumors connecting L.A. to half of the stars in the league, and decades of superstars who made this move, joining this organization almost looks like a cliché. Something about it feels beneath LeBron, and it could get a bit depressing as the years go by. If he's failing to qualify for the finals and he's struggling to attract other stars over the next few years, he risks seeing him abandoned on an island not like Kobe Bryant. , only Kobe lived this term after winning five titles for a team and a fanbase who loved him. LeBron would live this scenario as the guy who joined the Yankees Basketball and won nothing. Failure will bring more impatience, and more drama, but also the risk that the general public will be tired of it.
LeBron is very conscious of how he is perceived. That's probably why he announced this decision on July 1 with very little fanfare; he could feel that it was not summer to shoot an ad and make a show of that decision. He is also aware that at this stage of his career he is pursuing ghosts. Inheritance counts for him. And while the Lakers movement feels less revolutionary than some of its past moves, the story around its heat decision has been airbrushed largely because it worked. The same can happen to L.A.
Speaking of which, if we talk about the risks of life with the Lakers, we should consider the alternative. For the next 12 months, LeBron on the Lakers will be the biggest story in the sport. His relationships with Kobe, Magic and Lonzo will be the source of endless fascination, and they will probably add Kawhi to the mix. Off the court, he can go further in the entertainment industry while his family settles in Southern California. In the field, there is no bigger platform in the NBA, and perhaps in all sports, than what the Lakers can offer. The Warriors currently have the most dominant team reunited in at least 20 years. LeBron will take the next seasons and try to beat them, and the whole world will watch.
His game may have to evolve as he gets older. He will have to recruit stars 5 to 10 years younger than him. He will face a conference full of much tougher challenges than the Pacers and Raptors, not to mention the Golden State and Boston teams that have almost perfect foundations and are ready to assume the league's predictable future. Meanwhile, the Lakers have just signed Javale McGee, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Lance Stephenson.
The odds are not in LeBron's favor for a number of reasons. But if he can find a way to succeed anyway, there's a good chance we'll end this chapter of the Lakers by talking about him as the most dominant presence the NBA has ever seen, and d & rsquo; A more transcendent player than Jordan. And that would be the reward.
Source link
