All Ball Sports: Happy Trails Lebron James

 by Paul Teetor

Divorce is always toughest on the kids.

In this case, the kids are the fans.

Lakers fans will no longer have LeBron James – the second greatest player in NBA history, behind only 6-time champion Michael Jordan – to watch and cheer for while their team stumbles through the regular season and barely makes the playoffs before yet another early-round exit.

Now the fans will have to get their excitement watching Luka Doncic walk the ball up the court, dribble around for 20 seconds, and then launch a step-back three-pointer or pass to an open teammate who better hit the shot if he wants to get the ball again. 

The LeBron era in Los Angeles is over, and after eight long years of the Lebron experience you have to ask: how did we ever get here? Weren’t we supposed to win multiple championships with LeBron? Wasn’t his pairing with Anthony Davis supposed to be just like back in the day with the dominant duos of Shaq and Kobe and Kobe and Pau?

Is it really possible that one measly, de-valued NBA title — won in the Covid interrupted season of 2020, with all the games played in a Florida gym with no spectators — is all LeBron has to show for his years in LA now that we know LeBron is leaving the Lakers, even if we don’t know which team he’s going to take his talents to next?

Yep.

The partnership of LeBron and the Lakers that began with such great hype and promise in 2018 ended with one short tweet Tuesday morning from Shams Charania, the ESPN bottom-feeder who gets all his “inside information” from player agents who use him to help their clients and put pressure on teams to sign their players before someone else does.  

Even though LeBron and Lakers Governor Jeanne Buss issued statements about mutual gratitude and respect that were obviously crafted by Public Relations, make no mistake about it: when LeBron informed the Lakers Tuesday morning that he would indeed be playing a record 24th season in the NBA — but not with the Lakers — this was a bitter parting of the ways involving the usual divorce factors: power, trust and money.

Need proof?

Consider this juicy nugget: The night before LeBron said sayonara and see ya later, the Lakers salary of $2.2 million for end-of-the-bench point guard Bronny James became fully guaranteed for next season, thereby ensuring that Bronny won’t need to borrow any money from Daddy.

Do you think the Lakers would have picked up Bronny’s option if they knew that the very next morning LeBron was leaving for parts unknown? 

Of course not.

Should LeBron have told Lakers management that he wasn’t coming back before Bronny’s contract became fully guaranteed?

Of course.

But he didn’t tell them, and now the Lakers are stuck with Bronny, a faux NBA player, while dozens of better and more qualified players in the G League put in hundreds of hours of work just for the kind of shot at a roster spot that the Lakers handed their nepo baby. Hopefully the Lakers can find someone to take Bronny’s contract like, say, LeBron’s new team.

And when LeBron says his departure is not about the money cause he’s a billionaire already? Well, it’s about the money. In the NBA as in most of the rest of the world, respect is measured in dollar signs.   

Billionaires like to get paid for their work too

The math is simple: the Lakers had already let it be known through their mainstream media minions that if he wanted to come back next season LeBron would have to take a significant pay cut from the $52 million he made this year. They even put out the suggestion that all they could afford was $25 million for one year, which is far under LeBron’s real value to the Lakers.

After all, LeBron was the only reason that the Lakers, minus both the injured Luka and the grossly overpaid Austin Reaves – now making more than $45 million a year — were able to beat the Houston Rockets 4-2 in a first round series           

Besides the immediate issues of money and respect, the original sin in this divorce occurred in February 2025 when the Lakers made the biggest blockbuster trade in NBA history — without consulting LeBron – and acquired Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for LeBron’s closest friend on the Lakers, Anthony Davis.

LeBron wasn’t just upset about Luka coming to LA, where he knew immediately that the younger man – 14 years younger, to be exact – would immediately be handed the ball and control of the team’s future.

The issue wasn’t that the Lakers dealt Davis, James’ good friend whom he had played alongside for 5-1/2 seasons. The issue was that his team was turned upside down without his knowledge.

And without his consent.

Until then, James had his fingerprints on everything on every team he was with. He was the sun, and everything revolved around him and his wishes. Now a major decision had been made without him, signaling a drastic shift in the organization’s priorities.

Publicly, James was a good soldier. Doncic was too. Even though they were blindsided, they both said that they viewed playing together as a great opportunity.

Doncic told the media that he had been studying how James takes care of his body and prepares for games. James said, “I just love the kid,” adding, “I’m happy to be a small part of his journey. Hopefully, he can take something from me.”

From there it just got worse.

There are very few moments in James’ career when he was as uncomfortable as when he stood by his locker in January and answered questions about his relationship with Jeanie Buss.

He was put in that position after a bombshell ESPN story came out alleging that Buss “privately mused” about trading him in 2022 and “begrudgingly” offered him a contract extension in 2024. She was allegedly frustrated over his outsized influence on the team, his lack of appreciation after LA drafted his son, and his failure to take enough accountability for the Russell Westbrook disaster

Reporters asked: how did James view his relationship with Buss?

“I thought it was good,” he said. “But somebody could see it another way. So, it’s always two sides of the coin.”

Even though James claimed he didn’t pay attention to the reports and publicly brushed off that moment as unimportant, you could tell it was huge.

He didn’t need this drama. Especially after he ended the Lakers’ six-year playoff drought from 2012-18. After he carried them to their first championship in 10 years. After he spent the longest consecutive stretch of his career with the Lakers franchise.

Things only got more awkward for James as the season progressed.

After the Lakers went on a three-game winning streak at the start of March while James was sidelined because of left foot arthritis and a right hip contusion, the narrative on national sports shows became that the Lakers were better without him.

When James returned, he was asked to become the team’s third offensive option behind Doncic and Austin Reaves.

So LeBron embraced the role. He thrived in it. It led to the Lakers going on a 16-2 winning streak and being considered championship contenders before Doncic and Reaves were both injured in early April.

But whenever James was asked about being the team’s third option, it was clear a player who’s arguably the greatest of all-time felt bottled up. He felt underappreciated. He felt disrespected.

“It is a sacrifice,” James said in March. “I know what I’m capable of still doing as an individual. But what’s important for this team, I’m able to adapt to.”

The issue was that James was still too good. The 41-year-old could’ve been the first option for many teams. But on the Lakers, in the twilight of his career when he was playing very well for someone his age, instead of receiving applause he was being relegated to the corner.

To paraphrase Patrick Swazye in the great film “Dirty Dancing,” nobody puts LeBron in the corner.

The final verdict on LeBron in LA: on the court a great team-first guy who could do it all: score, rebound, assist and, that rarest of skills, make his teammates better.

Off the court: a me-first schemer and manipulator who forced the Lakers to trade the core the 2020 title team for Westbrook, draft his unqualified son and then acted dishonorably when it came time for him – and his son — to leave.

In other words, a typical human being whose strengths are also his weaknesses.

Divorce is always toughest on the kids.

Imagine being Bronny James now.

Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER