One of the most dominant narratives over the past few years, fueled by the departure of Kyrie Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers, is that top players don’t want to play with LeBron James. But that perception or narrative is far from the Lakers biggest problem, which is causing problems for LeBron on his new team.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Amick said that people close to LeBron are very concerned that the Lakers disfunction will cost them free agency even before Magic Johnson’s scorched earth appearance during Monday’s First Take on ESPN.
Even before Magic’s latest move, sources close to LeBron James expressed concern that the combination of Magic’s messy exit and all the negative Lakers headlines threatened to sabotage their summer.
There is no doubt that part of the calculus in LeBron’s move, in addition to being close to his various off-court businesses and a rich youth basketball culture in Los Angeles, that he could lure top players to join him with the Lakers. LeBron, as he said multiple times, saw the Lakers like the New York Yankees or Manchester United. But the business of winning basketball has many more factors than good branding and LeBron has now seen behind the brand name.
After seeing how the sausage is made with the Lakers, LeBron is obviously less optimistic about adding a top free agent and he’s likely in for another year of patiently building with a younger team in hopes of ending a six-year postseason drought for the franchise.
