The Lakers are shutting down key players, bringing back beloved storylines of yesteryear and making sense of a season gone awry.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way for LeBron James first year in Los Angeles, a royal marriage of the NBA’s best player and its glamour franchise. But a failure is what it has been and as the failure becomes even more inescapable, the Lakers are talking about expectations and reasons why things went wrong.
And according to LeBron James, he expected that things could go this way. While before the season he was tasked with leading them and making them feel like they could beat anyone, he’s admitting that he knew this could be an outcome after Saturday’s loss to the Celtics.
Here’s LeBron’s comments, from Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen and Roll.
”You continue to try to lead them as much as you can. Both on the fly and on off days in the film room,” James said. “Every day is another opportunity for them to learn and experience. You have to be very patient. They haven’t experienced a lot of this game, there’s a lot of things that’s new to them.
“They have to learn it on the fly, but I think the best teacher in life is experience,” James continued. “It’s challenging, but I kind of knew what I was getting myself into.”
The question I would be most fascinated to ask LeBron is when did he know this could go sideways? Was it when the Lakers didn’t bring back their good players to sign veterans to 1-year contracts? Was it their 2-5 start to the season? Was it before he even signed but he didn’t really care cause he would rather live in L.A. anyway?
Rich Paul, LeBron’s agent and friend, may have already answered the question for us.
All things being equal, James wanted to be in Los Angeles. He got his wish. But in his first year, it cost him more than he bargained for, no matter what comfort hindsight brings now.
