But it’s the other way.
Per Dan Woike in the Athletic, it’s not LeBron out bringing in players to fit around his ideal, it’s Luka Dončić: “Dončić has been an active recruiter for the Lakers this summer and helped secure commitments from Ayton and Smart after both unexpectedly hit free agency via contract buyouts.”
You might remember LeBron doing things like this in years past. You might think he’d be getting involved, but the only mentions of LeBron in the piece is in quick reference to “drama,” as he put it, and an “isn’t it great LeBron gets to play with Luka in training camp?" bit. Maybe that’s as far as it will go. Maybe that’s as far as it can go.
Luka Dončić is quite young. Luka Dončić will be getting great MVP odds. Luka Dončić still has half a decade or so of his athletic prime left, and with the way he sees the court, his late prime should still be spectacular in its own way. The league only has a few of these players around, the ones that define a team rather than lead it. Jokic, Shai, Giannis, maybe Tatum, and Luka.
That’s your player. That’s your team. That’s your timeline. You don’t overthink it. Overthinking turns you into the Mavericks.
Not overthinking, it appears the Lakers are Luka’s team now.
This is a new position for LeBron James to be in with the Lakers. This is a new position for LeBron to be in.
Going from number one to clear number two might kind of suck for LeBron
LeBron James is arguably the best player of all time. As such, there have been very few moments in his career when he was not, at least arguably, the best player on his team. At the very least, he was the most important in many of the ways that matter to NBA teams. In the past, franchises altered their entire offseason plans just for the chance of signing him. The teams lucky enough to have him shaped their play style, their identity around LeBron.
And it shifted their priority to the present. When you have the potential GOAT in his prime or late prime, you don’t really get a much better indication to push all your chips in. Teams would go all in. And teams would win a championship or two! It took two stints in Cleveland, but since it’s happened three times, that means it's a guarantee that if you have LeBron on your team you will eventually win a championship! Forever!
But yeah. Then LeBron would go somewhere else, and the franchise’s asset field was left more than a little barren.
That was the path LeBron decided to take with his career. A rather unique path, really, but it was effective. LeBron’s GOAT gravity was just that strong. Entire franchises orbited around him. It felt like the entire league did for a time.
At a remarkably slow pace, this eroded. LeBron went from arguably the best player in the league to being an MVP list mention. Then to an All-NBA edge case. There was a day in the past where he turned 40. He should not be able to play basketball as well as he does.
Unfortunately for LeBron, some people do play basketball better than he does now. And all of these people are younger. And some of them are going to be playing for a long time after he retires. He was already fairly old as heck by NBA standards when he signed with the Lakers, but he was still the number one. But rather than being THE number one, there were other number ones out there at or above his level.
You could have said that AD was that, and I think he could meet some qualifications, but even with his arguable higher peaks and relative youth, he was still injury prone. He wasn’t really a playmaker. And he wasn’t going to be picked over LeBron as the most important cog in a social system. Making AD a centerpiece of your team in 2025 is a bad move.
Only an idiot would do that.
Why do I have to care about this? Why are the Lakers?
Not too long ago, in a group chat I was in, I decided to rank NBA franchises in order of favorite to least favorite. I like lists. The Lakers were at the very bottom, and there was little thought to flipping them to 29 with someone else. I don’t even remember who 29 was. Probably Boston.
Then that got complicated because LeBron, my favorite player of all time, went there. Then he won a championship there. I had to root for the Lakers! It sucks! I’m happy for them! This is terrible!
Then the problem happens. My second-favorite player joins my first-favorite player on my least favorite team. Thank you for your concern for my personal turmoil, but this is a bigger problem for LeBron. The younger, better, longer-to-go players I was talking about? One happened to LeBron.
And it’s amazing how. The thing I said only an idiot would do? Build around AD in 2025? An idiot decided he wanted to do that, and as a result, Luka Dončić is a Laker.
I feel like I have to write it out every time it comes up in a news post because I still can’t comprehend it happened. Man …
So I have to care about the Lakers. And I kind of like the Lakers. And I may or may not have bought a Lakers Luka jersey. I don’t go to confession. I write my sins for a public humiliation ritual. It feels close enough to penance.
How does any of this relate to the article?
What?
Oh.
Well, I’m used to Lakers and LeBron united. And I’m used to Lakers and LeBron in a fight. And I’m used to LeBron and coach and also maybe Lakers being in a fight. But I’m not used to LeBron in a fight with Lakers while Lakers are like “yeah yeah in a minute we’re busy” and uniting with Luka Dončić so it almost seems like LeBron is by proxy in a fight with Luka as well, and yeah.
This is an entirely different dynamic for LeBron than he’s experienced before. Even if they are trying to work with LeBron and things are happening behind the scenes, it’s weird seeing all these things related to Luka and the Lakers and Luka and signings and Luka and his revenge tour and then there being nothing about LeBron. I’m not saying he should, and I’m not saying it’s healthy, but LeBron could feel some kind of way about that.
It’s hard to say. Maybe LeBron is being consulted. Maybe Luka and LeBron are in concert, and LeBron is just taking a backseat on the media around it.
I dunno. It’s just different, and it’s not my favorite different. Hopefully all is well by the time the team comes together.