It’s difficult to make sense of the LeBron James era with the Los Angeles Lakers.
James decided to leave Cleveland for Los Angeles after four straight trips to the NBA Finals, including winning a title with the Cavaliers in 2016. His time in Cleveland was strenuous, as there was immense pressure on the hometown hero to deliver on his promise of winning a championship and breaking the city’s 50-plus-year drought.
Upon James’ arrival in Los Angeles, the Lakers immediately traded their entire young core for Anthony Davis, a bona fide star. Looking back, that trade still makes sense. On the surface, it seemed like the package of premium draft picks and promising young players like Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram was a massive return for the New Orleans Pelicans, who gave up one injury-prone big man.
But Ball and Ingram never turned into the franchise-altering players they were expected to become. The Pelicans never did much with those draft picks. And David Griffin, who executed the move for New Orleans, was just fired. That tells you everything you need to know.
On the other hand, Davis helped James deliver a title to Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic’s NBA bubble. As we all know, Davis was infamously flipped this season for Luka Doncic, a trade that was believed to set up the Lakers for the future.
The NBA bubble championship was James’ fourth title and the third different organization he has won a ring with. You could argue that the bubble championship was one of the most difficult to win in the history of professional sports, as teams had to take significant time off the court, get COVID-19 tested daily in Florida and remain quarantined away from their families in segregated hotels. What a bizarre time that was.
But if not for that 2020 NBA championship, James’ time with the Lakers would be considered underwhelming and difficult to grasp.
In his first season with the Lakers, they completely missed the playoffs — a stunner after he had just carried the Cavaliers to four straight trips to the Finals. In 2021, the Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns in the first round, though the Suns went on to win the Western Conference.
In 2022, the Lakers missed the playoffs again. In 2023, they were swept in the Western Conference Finals by the Denver Nuggets, who would go on to win the NBA championship.
But back-to-back first-round exits have some questioning James’ legacy in Los Angeles. In 2024, the Lakers were a non-factor in the playoffs. It was so bad that Darvin Ham was immediately fired and replaced by JJ Redick, who faced a similar fate in the first round.
The 2025 Lakers were assembled in the 11th hour. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison still looks foolish for trading away Luka Doncic — though perhaps slightly less so, as Doncic’s defensive flaws were exposed in the first-round loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After another first-round exit, James did not go into detail about his future. That’s to be expected.
The 40-year-old has a player option on the new deal he signed with the Lakers last summer. He could decline it and explore unrestricted free agency, or simply decide to ride out his final years in Los Angeles.
It’ll be a fascinating decision. James is still putting up legitimate superstar numbers, but it hasn’t impacted winning in Los Angeles the same way it did in Cleveland. It’s already a “meh” free agency class headlined by James Harden and Kyrie Irving, who will be coming off a major injury.
LeBron’s impact in Los Angeles has been tough to measure — thank goodness for that 2020 NBA championship.
