You know, I think I have some ability to read LeBron James. Not like when he was in Miami or Cleveland but I still understand his language. You gotta like open the book though to read, know what I mean?
LBJ’s comments over All-Star week went ✈️ over my head until Ramona Shelburne took out her highlight pen and colored them yellow. So, after a loss to the “Bucks” LeBron, with Anthony Davis sitting right next to him, was asked if the "Lakers" were at Milwaukee's level and if they could get there with this roster. The answer to the first question was obvious and LeBron said the obvious, just look at the standings. The answer to the second was coming into clearer focus and LeBron dilated it: "No." That was the game, I believe, that late, after the matter was decided, after Russell Westbrook had been benched in the 4th quarter and James and Davis tried to dig the "Lakers" out of a hole, after Frank Vogel waved the white flag and took them out, that Russ came behind the two and smiling and laughing rubbed them on their heads, the time AD and LBJ barely acknowledged Westbrook's presence.
That was after anyone who took a look at the "Lakers" game log this season saw that this was a battery that would not take a charge. It never got out of third gear.
That was after Magic Johnson tweeted directly to owner Jeanie Buss that the "Lakers" were play was a mess and that consequently something had to be done. And the undersigned got into the act on Jeanie.
That was before the trade deadline came, in the immediate run-up to which there were tons of rumors that the front office, Buss and GM Rob Pelinka, would make changes, moving Westbrook prominent among them. Instead the "Lakers" stood pat. After which Pelinka came out with a statement that he had consulted with LeBron and that the latter was on the same page about not making a trade.
So in that full context I was amiss in not reading more into LBJ's effusive and unsolicited praise of Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti as the best in the business. "Nice of LeBron," the undersigned insouciantly thought. Unusual. Nothing more than that. Presti was worthy. I did not catch the passive-aggressive LeBron-speak✈️. Pelinka, his own GM, is not the best GM in the business. Presti is, Pelinka is not. Oh yeah.
Then Ramona Shelburne revealed that Pelinka had NOT consulted with James on the trade deadline. Now, that's a real problem. First, James made it clear this roster was not going to get it done, clearly telegraphing that the trade deadline should not pass with a whimper; then when it does Pelinka out and says he spoke to James and he was down with the whimper. So James went off with the bang about Presti.
LeBron also said re a second return to Cleveland, "that door is not closed." James' contract in La-La is up this summer. He is never again going to take a salary cut, as he did in coming to Miami, implying that if Dan Gilbert's door to luxury tax hell were open the door to LeBron "coming home" agayne was not closed. Finally, James said that he is going to play his last season as a pro wherever son Bronny plays, which I still do not have a close reading on since the young 'in is still in high school. I think LeBron said, somebody said, that Bronny would be eligible for the NBA when LeBron was 39 years old. Anyway, Bronny aside, LeBron will sign his standard two-year deal this summer, with someone.
Ramona Shelburne had one more delicious morsel. Two can play the passive-aggressive game. Pelinka can play the passive-aggressive game. LeBron, the constantly injured Davis, Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony--this was a roster put together by LeBron, all his buds, whoever he wanted Pelinka gave him. "I consulted you when you got here LeBron, I got everybody you wanted! If you wanted me to trade Russell Westbrook, drop the passive bullshit and tell me directly. Otherwise, I'm going to assume you want to wallow in mediocrity with your friends." Shelburne was even more pointed. Pelinka's message back to LeBron was a version of the Pottery Barn Rule, "You broke it you bought it. Make it work, BITCH." I thought that was pretty good by Rob.
