07-03-2025, 02:34 PM
(07-03-2025, 02:23 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Yeah, there is that.
But, just playing devil's advocate, he has the power to make life for the Lakers completely untenable for the next year. Whether or not they (the Lakers) care what he thinks about anything, people in, around and following the league still do care a lot. They (the Lakers) will absolutely not want him releasing statements like last week's through Rich Paul every couple of weeks this season or giving passive aggressive interviews (which he is quite comfortable doing on a regular basis). At some point, should he choose to, he can make it almost impossible for them to accomplish anything this season without giving him what he wants.
But, that's assuming we know what he wants, or even that he does, clearly. And, his rep in LA would be bloodied by such a tactic, to be sure. Even if he wants out...he'd have to really, really want out to go down that road.
It's fun to think about all this, but all roads lead back to him finishing out this year in LA and then retiring, I believe.
Well, of course he can make life miserable for Lakers. But, Lakers might view this season just as a transition to post LeBron years and would not really care a lot. Of course, they want to be as good as possible. But, I don't think they seriously hope to be real contenders this season. Their moves (so far) are careful, trying to improve the team without damaging the long term aspect. And who knows, if everything clicks, they could still make a run. West will be killing fields in any case and who knows what happens to any team.
On the other hand - by making life miserable to the Lakers, LeBron will also kill any chance he might have this season to compete. And time is certainly not on his side.