It's a good day in Lakerland!

LeBron James is here for 4 years! More to come!

 

No surprise. I think he will fit right in in La La Land.

 

You'll find out what he's all about soon enough, just ask Miami and us in Cleveland. He's a great player, but the BS behind the scenes and drama are wearing. In LA it will be magnified times 10. The stories we have are endless going back to his high school days in town, a lot wasn't spoken in the media because he was protected. He's got some big shoes to fill out there, we'll see if he can fill them.

 

I hope it all falls apart.

 

LeQuitter

 

If James wanted more titles he would have gone to Houston or Boston, not LA. This is more about his family and his career after basketball. I doubt you will see the Lakers in the finals because of James but I am often wrong.

Oh and you all in LA actually lost out as your ticket prices went through the roof! Too funny.

 

Dennis Rodman singlehandedly boosted L.A.'s economy.

Sunset Strip & every club was jam packed every night Lakers were in town.

Does Lebrawn par-tay?

"I am weak-ish on snatch" ~ joker57676

 

I think he knows he will not win another title and he will not unless he teams up with another MVP elsewhere. I think he did this as planned retirement and transition into building his brand and off-court endeavors. He has way more opportunities to do that in LA than elsewhere. The 4 year large $ commitment just confirmed what I suspected. If he cared about winning he would have done a 1 and done option at a place that has a chance as he's losing time. Finishing 3rd in the west still ain't bad for that pay...

 

Lol

 

He will draw huge crowds.

Championships? Mmmmm...

 

In another attempt at a "balance of power" play in the Deep Western conference, Hours after signing Lebron, the Lakers signed Golden State Warriors backup center and crowd favorite JaVale Mcgee. The thought that this would both strengthen the Lakers Frontcourt and weaken the archival Warriors.

How did the Warriors respond...hours later the Golden State Warriors sign All Star New Orleans Pelican's center, Demarcus Cousins...The Warriors management did not win these last 2 championships sitting on their laurel's...they are Champions for a reason-starting from the top. The rich get richer.

 

Is the NBA now a West Coast only league? 2 of the 2 players I know in the NBA play there. Seriously, is this a good thing for the league?

 

It's bad for the league. There isn't much parity. I'm not sure there is anything they can do...it was bound to happen and I'm surprised it took this long for players to team up rather than trying to do it alone.

Maybe in the future the league will have to subjectively approve trades and free agency signings to not allow that. It really hurts the small/mid-market franchises and the cities that help subsidize their arenas...

 

Not that the Lakers didn't have mostly bandwagon fans before, now they'll have even more!

 

Well what we do know is that Lakers fans throw riots and destroy their own city regardless if they win or lose the finals...it seems they just need some kind of reason to do it.

 

Please expand on this.

 

I've become an instant Laker fan. Been living in So. Cal for 40 years. Now I have something to be excited about with the Lakers. couldn't stand Kobe.

 

But can he play ball? I don't get caught up in their personal lives. Just bring home Championships.

 

I am already tired of the pre-marketing of LeBron coming to LA.

If he doesn't get a championship to LA he will be branded a failure. The pressure is on him.

 

There's only about a 1000 stories. Where the hell do you start. What do you want to know? The stories of how he deals with the coaches, the Kyrie/LeBron friction, the Wade debacle, his relationship with Dan Gilbert......etc.

I'm really interested to see how this LA experiment works out, I can't imagine it working. We were hearing stories about LA/LeBron for a while, so it wasn't necessarily a surprise. With Magic's tampering this past season earning him multiple NBA fines it only added gasoline to the fire. Here's a little tidbit I know you haven't heard. We were hearing LeBron mid season while still playing with the Cavs was trying to get Lakers coach Luke Walton fired. LeBron preferred recently fired coach at the time David Fizdale to replace Walton, Magic was hesitant and Jeannie being loyal to the former Laker denied it. Now sometimes LeBron is direct with his requests, sometimes he quits during games (or a whole month) hides in a corner of the court and let's his teammates bury themselves to get a point across, sometimes he's passive aggressive via his social media or he uses the press and bleeds someone slowly with a million paper cuts in his subtle comments that are examined for days in the media for interpretation, but either way he'll get his way. He has nicknames for certain members of the press that he trusts to get out a narrative for him, he calls them his "other wives" There were reports yesterday that LeBron has yet to talk to Coach Walton, we had the same issue with Coach Blatt. LeBron didn't talk to Blatt either upon returning in 2014, in fact Blatt had to fly to a movie set to see LeBron a month after he announced he was coming back. He might give Walton a chance, but there is no evidence in his history to say that once he gets frustrated that he'll revert to old LeBron. The word out of LA is LeBron wants to play more off ball this season, be more low post and slash to the hoop. That too was tried with Blatt, it lasted about a month before it became the typical LeBron offense of dribbling it into the ground for 20 seconds than throwing up a crazy turn around jumper of which he probably made. LeBron loves his stats, we would be up by 15 points with 2 minutes to go and LeBron would still be in the game. After a million times of seeing this, it's all about getting that extra rebound to chalk up another triple double. If LeBron goes to a more off ball, losing that control he's used to, that potentially will effect his game stats which he hates. LeBron also hates the low post, even though everyone knows he's virtually unstoppable down there. He hates it because he gets too beat up for the entire season, so that's another roadblock I don't see LeBron accepting all year. The problem for him is if he reverts to the old way he plays, he doesn't have any shooters around him in LA to make it work. I'll tell you one thing, the one advantage the Lakers have on LeBron is he gave up some leverage with signing a 3 year deal. Pat Riley had similar deal in Miami with LeBron, so when he tried to get Spolstra fired, Pat was able to lay the hammer down and stop it.

If he wasn't from Northeast Ohio we wouldn't put up with 1% of the stuff, but Cleveland was so desperate for a champion and to have the local guy do it was incredibly special. If you saw the Cavs victory parade, you'll know how thirsty and appreciative this town was.

 

Just a small tidbit and nothing massive by any stretch, but as I detailed in my above post, get ready for who will be calling the shots, it's just starting for you Lakers fans and all too familiar for us in Cleveland.

If you don't know what "Klutch" is, read up, you'll be hearing it a lot in LA.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Klutch Sports Group?

 

I saw one prognostication of the current odds for winning the 2019 NBA title. Warriors, Celtics, Rockets, 76ers, Lakers, in that order. We'll see if LeBron's Lakers are the fifth-best team...

 

Ugly opening home game for LeBron. Not nearly the level of Pistons-Pacers brawl, but some poor decision making with weak punches thrown. Mayweather was probably watching from the sidelines and laughing at those attempts...

 

It was great entertainment. I still can't figure out why the hell Ingram pushed Harden. And it sure looked like he was getting in the face of the ref for some reason.