Lakers News: LeBron James' Extension Signals He 'runs the team' Says LA Insider

The LA Times Bill Plaschke had some sharp criticism of the Lakers organization and LeBron James following the star signing a contract extension.

The reaction to LeBron James inking a new deal has been mixed. Kobe loyalists, who have never enjoyed James' presence on the purple and gold, denounced the continuation of the Lakers-LeBron era. Scores of analysts and pundits pointed to how LeBron's new deal does little to upgrade the roster and will financially handcuff the team moving forward. And then there's veteran LA Times columnist Plaschke.

Plaschke openly stated that James is no longer a player that can lead a team to a championship (quotes via The LA. Times).

"It first assumes that James is still capable of leading a team to a full-season championship. The truth is that he is not."

The columnist cited LeBron's recent injury history, and then, used the new extension as proof that it is James, not Jeanie Buss, nor Rob Pelinka, nor the Rambii, who runs the organization.

"Nonetheless, this extension does undoubtedly prove that James shares one trait with previous Lakers stars. James seemingly runs the team, which could be problematic when he reaches the player-option portion of his contract before the 2024 season."

To be fair to Plaschkie, there's plenty of signs that LeBron and Klutch Sports, ran by his close friend Rich Paul, have an oversized impact on the Lakers roster construction. 

As one astute Twitter user pointed out, the Lakers have signed 13(!) Klutch Sports clients since 2017. Three of the five free agents LA signed this past July were Klutch clients. Coincidence? Probably not.

Klutch clients on the Lakers since 2017

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
LeBron James
Anthony Davis
Talen Horton-Tucker
Dion Waiters
J.R. Smith
Montrezl Harrell
Ben McLemore
Kendrick Nunn
Scotty Pippen Jr.
Lonnie Walker IV
Troy Brown Jr.
Juan Toscano-Anderson

— pickuphoop (@pickuphoop) June 30, 2022

Many of those signings, Dion Waiters, Ben McLemore, Talen Horton-Tucker, have been abject failures.

LeBron, along with fellow Klutch client Anthony Davis, famously pushed Pelinka to trade for Russell Westbrook last summer, nixing the Buddy Hield trade that the VP of basketball operations had lined up.

Now, LeBron wants to be out of the Westbrook business.

The Lakers front office did famously resist sending out significant draft capital to deal Russ this past February, despite James reported desire to jettison Westbrook and bring in proven veterans. 

But this is the bed the Lakers made when they first signed LeBron has a free agent in the summer of 2018 and the bed they re-made earlier this week by extending LeBron. 

Ever since becoming a full-fledged superstar, James has had an incredible amount of influence on how franchises operate. 

Whether or not James' stranglehold on the franchise produces another championship, has yet to be seen.