LeBron James was more than just a ‘visitor’ to the Lakers
· Yahoo Sports
The book is closed on LeBron James’ stint with the Los Angeles Lakers. Over eight years he defied the traditional constraints of aging and brought a championship to the decorated franchise. Now he’s searching for a setting to play out the final seasons of his career.
Just the other day I was wondering about what James’ legacy will be when he hangs up his sneakers. More specifically, which jersey will people remember him wearing? Odds are, it’s Cleveland. That’s where he started and enjoyed a triumphant return. Second is probably Miami, where he had the most success. And Los Angeles would be a somewhat distant third for those old enough to remember him in his prime.
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Still, I disagree with Colin Cowherd’s take that the better part of a decade in the city of angels was merely a business transation.
“What is his legacy,” Cowherd asked about James on Thursday. “He always felt like a lame-duck Laker. It was a business transaction … LeBron always felt like a visitor.”
This is a case of James’ career stretching so long that it skews perspective. In this day and age it’s somewhat a rarity for a player to stay with a team for eight years. If he was a lame duck then he was a lame duck season after season. Which seems to fly in the definition of what a lame duck is understood to be.
James was also, by any standard, the face of the franchise until Luka Doncic ruled into town. So it’s hard for me to say he was some transient visitor rolling through town just biding his time for the next job. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how his time with the Lakers is viewed. A championship, though it was just one, makes it all worthwhile. Plus, the Lakers were under no disillusion about what bringing James into the fold means. There’s a lot of good but, yeah, he’s a businessman and will move on when he gets a better offer.
The Lakers cannot offer a model that puts him in realistic reach of a title right now. So he’s going elsewhere. There honestly should be no hard feelings. If Los Angeles fans want to go on believing that he’s not an equal member of a legacy-steeped family, that’s fine. But both sides definitely got what they desired out of the arrangement.