After eight straight trips to the Finals LeBron James is in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs entirely. LAL lost to PHX, the worst team in the league Saturday night, the game I was hoping the team would suspend him for. Friday night they blew a game they had at home to the best team in the league, Milwaukee, the game James quit on his team, the trigger for the suspension suggestion. In one humiliating sequence last night James lazily threw an inbound pass intended for a wing that hit the underside of the basket. Turnover LA.
There is not a person on the whole earth who thought LAL would miss the playoffs this season.
James missed like 18 games with a groin injury. Lorenzo Ball is still out with, I think, a knee injury, but LAL has a better player in Brandon Ingram than anybody on the Miami "Heat." He's got more spring than a trampoline.
No, the fault is not in the injuries. The fault is in LBJ. LAL has gone in the tank since he lobbied publicly for a trade for NOLA's Anthony Davis. LAL would have had to have given up just about the entire roster (excepting LBJ). The trade fell through and now: "You want me to follow the lead of the guy who just about got me traded me to NOLA? Nah-ah."
And so, LeBron James goes about the ruination of another franchise, the undermining of teammates, of his coach (he wants someone other than Luke Walton). Bill Plaschke, LA Times writer says LBJ isn't even the "Lakers" leader. That's Rajon Rondo.
The "Lakers" however are stuck with James. He has a no trade clause, as he always has had. He wants the power and the more power one person has the more temptation to use that power corruptly. James is going to go through his lead-footed jog slow downs, he is going to try to sabotage the "Lakers" franchise and Magic Johnson needs to assert control. He should have suspended him. Can you imagine a team suspending LeBron James? And every time he shows up a teammate on the floor, as he did Dion Waiters, Kyrie Irving, and Isaiah Thomas in Cleveland II, every time he moves like a recovering paraplegic, if he ever walks off the court before the end of the game again, LAL ought to suspend him. If he's not going to give it the full 100 on the floor, support his teammates and listen to his coach, bench his ass. But...Magic won't do it. James is too powerful.
A generation ago Magic got Paul Westhead fired in mid season as "Lakers" coach. The new coach was plucked incongruously from the "Lakers" broadcast booth. He was untested and had no credibility. But Pat Riley walked into a locker room with Magic, Kareem and James Worthy and stood there for a moment and said, "You're either with me or you're against me." And then he walked out. In a situation where he had zero leverage Pat Riley seized the locker room by presenting the players with a binary choice. Riley and those players and that franchise went on to win four championships together in seven years. The next coach in cool, chill dude SoCal needs to do that.
There is not a person on the whole earth who thought LAL would miss the playoffs this season.
James missed like 18 games with a groin injury. Lorenzo Ball is still out with, I think, a knee injury, but LAL has a better player in Brandon Ingram than anybody on the Miami "Heat." He's got more spring than a trampoline.
No, the fault is not in the injuries. The fault is in LBJ. LAL has gone in the tank since he lobbied publicly for a trade for NOLA's Anthony Davis. LAL would have had to have given up just about the entire roster (excepting LBJ). The trade fell through and now: "You want me to follow the lead of the guy who just about got me traded me to NOLA? Nah-ah."
And so, LeBron James goes about the ruination of another franchise, the undermining of teammates, of his coach (he wants someone other than Luke Walton). Bill Plaschke, LA Times writer says LBJ isn't even the "Lakers" leader. That's Rajon Rondo.
The "Lakers" however are stuck with James. He has a no trade clause, as he always has had. He wants the power and the more power one person has the more temptation to use that power corruptly. James is going to go through his lead-footed jog slow downs, he is going to try to sabotage the "Lakers" franchise and Magic Johnson needs to assert control. He should have suspended him. Can you imagine a team suspending LeBron James? And every time he shows up a teammate on the floor, as he did Dion Waiters, Kyrie Irving, and Isaiah Thomas in Cleveland II, every time he moves like a recovering paraplegic, if he ever walks off the court before the end of the game again, LAL ought to suspend him. If he's not going to give it the full 100 on the floor, support his teammates and listen to his coach, bench his ass. But...Magic won't do it. James is too powerful.
A generation ago Magic got Paul Westhead fired in mid season as "Lakers" coach. The new coach was plucked incongruously from the "Lakers" broadcast booth. He was untested and had no credibility. But Pat Riley walked into a locker room with Magic, Kareem and James Worthy and stood there for a moment and said, "You're either with me or you're against me." And then he walked out. In a situation where he had zero leverage Pat Riley seized the locker room by presenting the players with a binary choice. Riley and those players and that franchise went on to win four championships together in seven years. The next coach in cool, chill dude SoCal needs to do that.