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Lakers: Do LA Fans Even Care That LeBron James Is On Their Team?

As King James keeps climbing up the record books, fans seem more politely congratulatory than truly celebratory.

Alex Kirschenbaum

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LeBron James turns 38 years old today.

The 18-time (soon to be a record-tying 19-time) All-Star is in the midst of his fifth season with your Los Angeles Lakers, and were it not for his own regrettable approval of perhaps one of the dumbest trades in recent team history, his club could still have very much been a contender in a wide-open Western Conference.

James the player has been anything but a problem on this otherwise talent-poor 2022-23 Lakers team.

Through 27 games, the 6'9" combo forward is averaging 27.8 points on .498/.297/.752 shooting splits, 8.1 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 1.1 steals a night, in a whopping 35.7 minutes per. By a very, very wide margin, that number is the most for a player in their 20th NBA season ever -- and that feat of longevity to date has been accomplished by only 10 players (half of whom were Lakers at the time) in league history:

That list is only partially complete. Kevin Garnett averaged 12.2 points per contest in his 20th NBA season, split between the Brooklyn Nets and the Minnesota Timberwolves (he would retire after year 21). Jamal Crawford appeared in just one game for the Brooklyn Nets during the league's 2020 Orlando "bubble" season restart, scoring five points in six minutes before he got hurt and his career ended for good. Former All-Star big man Kevin Willis averaged three points a game across 29 contests during his 20th season (he would go on to retire, then un-retire for a brief stint with the Dallas Mavericks for his 21st and final season). LeBron James's former Miami Heat teammate, Udonis Haslem, is also in the midst of his 20th NBA season, though the 42-year-old is more or less a playing assistant coach at this point. He is averaging 0.6 points a game and 1.2 rebounds across five appearances so far.

Yes, there are signs even in LBJ's year-over-year stats that he is aging, somewhat. His general shooting efficiency has dipped, even as he is averaging his second-most shot attempts in his career. He can't buy a three despite taking 6.9 heaves a night. His 29.7% represents the second-lowest long range rate of his career, though he is taking the second-most triples ever as he continues to adjust his shot diet in the name of self-preservation. He seems to be avoiding the beating his body absorbs on drives to the rack a bit more this year. 

That hypothesis seems to also be supported by his downturn in free-throw shooting, as he is averaging an all-time low of 5.2 looks from the charity stripe this year, a far drop from his 7.8 tries a night. But even with those caveats, his output considering his age is completely unprecedented, and he remains handily one of the best 20-25 players in the league even in his NBA dotage.

To be fair, this writer at least believes James probably should have a few more restrictions in place to preserve his body in year 20, despite this historic level of production. The Chosen One should never play both nights of a back-to-back set again, nor should he play 35.7 minutes a night when 30 will do just fine. After proving remarkably durable during his first 15 seasons as a pro, he has been beset by injuries much more frequently in Los Angeles. In fact, he is officially questionable to play tonight against the Atlanta Hawks due to an ankle injury. Should he miss the action tonight, he will have been sidelined for nine fo the team's 36 games (25%). If that rate of absenteeism persists throughout the season, it would be exactly in line with his average missed games incurred since joining the Lakers in that fateful summer of 2018: 21 contests.

All that said, James is doing absolutely unprecedented stuff. It seems Lakers fans, who admittedly have been spoiled rotten with a lifetime's worth of Hall of Fame talent, appreciate James, but as a whole do not love him at the level of recent past legends Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Had Shaquille O'Neal retired a Laker, he would have numbered among these greats in the estimation of LA fans, but his 2004 trade diluted his appeal a bit for the Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena faithful.

Why don't they love LBJ?

He delivered them a title in just his second season with the franchise. Was it tainted by the fact that it happened in the Orlando "bubble?" Back in LA, Lakers fans transformed the commemoration of that championship, in October 2020, to a celebration of Bryant, who had just passed in January of that year before the world went to hell in March.

James is performing much, much better than Bryant did during his 20th season. While post-Achilles tear Kobe was pretty much out of gas and had reverted to his worst tendencies as a player (hogging the ball, inefficient shooting), James has yet to suffer a catastrophic injury and remains a pretty close facsimile of his peak on-court self. James can still build up a head of a steam in transition and dunk with a nearly-unmatchable ferocity. He remains of the league's best passers and playmakers. He has been a Laker longer than he was ever a Heatle, although that run coincided with four straight Finals trips, while with LA he has already missed the playoffs twice in his four completed seasons with the franchise. Beyond just his slight depreciation with age, his inferior supporting cast here has a lot to do with that, but still. 

Barring said catastrophic injury, James is going to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's regular season scoring record this year (although, as I've said many times, he already actually owns the all-time scoring record when you combine playoff and regular season points scored), but his team will almost certainly be among the West's worst at that point. At 14-21, the Lakers are currently the 13th seed in their conference, almost as close to the 15th seed (four games up on the Houston Rockets) as they are to the 10th (3.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors).

Lakers fans, not inaccurately, see James as something of a mercenary. He is a man without a team, having abandoned Cleveland, the club that drafted him in 2003 twice as a free agent, and the Heat once. Some factions in LA are already calling for the just-extended James to be traded in the offseason so that the team can rebuild without him and he can contend for championships elsewhere.

Regardless of how long LeBron James remains a Laker, it might behoove LA fans to reassess just how special this guy is. One of the greatest players in the history of the game, someone who could become the all-time GOAT before all is said and done, has chosen to join the league's glamor franchise. Just because hasn't had Shaq levels of success here, doesn't mean he isn't still the second-most important free agent acquisition in the team's history.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Basketball is Alex's favorite sport, he likes the way they dribble up and down the court.

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