Lakers News: Reporter Cites This As Main Reason To Stay Tuned To LA

Despite the team's middling record, fans should still watch this key element.

After a five-year tenure, Los Angeles Lakers beat reporter Kyle Goon submitted his final piece for The Orange County Register, as he moves on from the LA grind to greener pastures.

In it, he cites the insane continued greatness of Lakers superstar forward LeBron James as the most watchable action going for LA fans. To this end, Goon shares an intriguing anecdote about getting a look at a very raw James, who was putting in work during the league's Orlando-based "bubble" postseason. 

"It was in this setting that I watched James, then 35, work out with assistant Phil Handy for half an hour, which isn’t itself unusual," Goon writes. "What was unique about this session was how poorly he shot, missing looks left and right, looking tired, sweating through his hoodie. During the early days of the pandemic, James had grown the beard of a mountaineer, and he had let gray seep into its fringes... The gray hairs, the weary workout, James lying on his back on the court, swearing in frustration – it captured the sense of uncertainty at the time, as well as the toughest one-on-one the star will ever face, against Father Time. So I did what any writer would do – I wrote it." 

"And as vulnerable as I found that moment for LeBron, it was even more telling what I noticed in the media session before the first game that actually counted: He dyed his beard. All those white hairs that subtly suggest a kind of sageness or worldy experience were blended to look just like the others. What I’ve come to understand about LeBron James is that he does not age gracefully. He ages defiantly. He kicks back. He relishes his still profound physical gifts at age 38, maybe even more loudly on social media than he ever did before. You think you can peg when he’s coming back from an injury? No, he says, only he decides when he’s coming back."

"Unlike many men feeling the onset of middle-aged doldrums setting in, James seeks to shake off the feeling like a musty winter coat. Unlike many of us, he has the ability to work out three hours a day on a torn tendon that two other doctors said he should get surgically repaired. And if he has to do tireless work around the clock to do it, he can. And he will."

Goon notes that James has still seemed uniquely vulnerable in his NBA dotage with LA. He has not been able to suit up for over 60 healthy regular season games in four of his five Laker seasons thus far. He has only made it out of the first round once across his four completed Lakers seasons, and has actually missed the playoffs twice. To be fair, he also won Los Angeles a title in that span, so really everything else the 20-year pro can provide is pretty much gravy.

The whole article is well worth a read, as it's an insightful piece into one of basketball's all-timers, and the fascinating ways in which he has managed his post-prime for the league's glamor franchise.

Cheers to Goon on his next adventure, and cheers to LeBron James, who refuses to go gently into that good night, even as middle age encroaches in unwanted ways.

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