Lakers News: Charles Barkley's Pick For "King Of LA" Basketball May Ruffle Feathers
Last week, Hall of Fame power forward-turned-Emmy Award-winning TNT broadcaster Charles Barkley reflected on the Los Angeles Clippers' latest win against your Los Angeles Lakers, their 11th straight.
Barkley opined that LA native Kawhi Leonard, the oft-injured future Clippers Hall of Fame swingman, was somehow the most important NBA player in town, better than his oft-injured All-Star teammate Paul George or oft-injured future Lakers Hall of Famers LeBron James or Anthony Davis.
"The Lakers ain't gonna make no run… Kawhi Leonard ran them out of the building last night," Barkley said. "Kawhi sent them a message last night. He's the king of LA."
This is fascinating, given that the Lakers with Davis and James actually won a title.
Yes, Leonard's Clippers have won a ton of head-to-matchups against the Lakers. But his team also imploded during probably its best chance to win, during the 2020 Orlando "bubble" campus restart, against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals.
The next year, the Clips did make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals (while the Lakers didn't get out of the first round, in part because of an Anthony Davis injury midway through the series), but couldn't beat the Phoenix Suns thanks to a Leonard ACL tear.
Across his four regular seasons with LA, Leonard has never played more than 57 games, missed a whole year (2021-22), and on average has been healthy for just 161 of a possible 308 regular season contests. There's no question who the king of LA is, and that's the guy whose literal nickname is King James, despite having his own injury issues during his NBA dotage.
Sporting a 44-38 record, the Clippers are currently the fifth seed in the West, and clear underdogs in their 4-5 first round matchup with the star-studded Phoenix Suns. Los Angeles is the seventh seed at 43-39, and is also an underdog in its matchup with an ailing Memphis Grizzlies club. Should either team pull off the upset, it could help cement Leonard's or LeBron's case for "King of LA" bragging rights. Although, really, unless Leonard actually wins a title here, LBJ has a pretty significant edge.
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