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July 1, 2018 10:28 PM   Subscribe

The King in the City of Angels Under cover of darkness and all by himself, Magic Johnson arrived at LeBron James’ Brentwood house at 9:01 p.m. on Saturday. He knew β€” he just knew β€” that if he could look James in the eye and talk to him, they’d connect. They had too much in common for that not to happen.

Widely regarded as the best basketball player in the world, LeBron James wasted no time as NBA free agency began on July 1st, agreeing to join the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2018-19 season.
posted by Celsius1414 (42 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Let's start this thread off the right way: Fuck Dan Gilbert.

If only I could say it in comic sans.
posted by yeahwhatever at 10:54 PM on July 1, 2018 [9 favorites]


If he already had a house in one of the swankest parts of L.A., I'd say he was already leaning Laker-way. I mean, it's an easy commute for half of your working season... (And Brentwood, wasn't that where long-ago Laker star Wilt Chamberlain built a house with absurdly high ceilings?)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:09 PM on July 1, 2018


I have enjoyed two very good tweets about this.
  1. @ParkerMalloy: Really gotta feel for the Cavs fans who bought a LeBron jersey, recorded themselves setting it on fire, bought a new jersey, and now have to set that one on fire, too.
  2. @mikesanchez0: Well that’s an interesting case of foreshadowing. @cavs #AllForOne [a series of images]
posted by Going To Maine at 11:30 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]


I don't know if it's my social bubble, but most of my Cavs friends aren't mad at LeBron at all. Like most people are bummed that the Cavs are likely going to suck, but genuinely wish him well. I'd be kinda surprised to see LeBron jerseys being lit on fire.
posted by yeahwhatever at 12:07 AM on July 2, 2018 [7 favorites]


The 538 gang ran the numbers on How Good Will The Lakers Be With LeBron? (here's the summary in tweet form), though the interesting question is who else they get now.
posted by zachlipton at 12:21 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Cavs fan here. I wish him well, and hope we get an Old Lebron Jordan-On-The-Wizards season or two at the end of the line. Flags fly forever, is the difference from last time.
posted by Kwine at 12:22 AM on July 2, 2018 [8 favorites]


The strength of the players in the NBA is making for some interesting dynamics compared to other sports. Some of it is for the good, it's great to see players able to act to shape the league instead of them just being pieces ownership pushes around at their whim, but for fans the allure of a few big market teams for so many players isn't as ideal since it can make it more difficult for teams outside those markets to compete and the league can suffer for that.

Lebron going to the Lakers isn't great for the league because it's so tied to simply being the Lakers. The more heartening non-move was Paul George sticking with Oklahoma instead of going to the Lakers as he earlier suggested he would. It's fine for there to be teams/places players want to go to like LA, but providing enough incentive to get the best players to want to play elsewhere, in less obviously attractive cities is a necessity for long term league survival. Good ownership seems to be the big difference maker, so the NBA and other leagues may do well to find ways to make ownership adhere to better codes of conduct to keep them from turning teams into private fiefdoms if they want to remain relevant.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:32 AM on July 2, 2018


No surprise. Son Bronny is enrolled in a California school. It will be interesting to see if LeBron ruins the rapport of the young Lakers.
posted by Cranberry at 12:32 AM on July 2, 2018


It will be interesting to see if LeBron ruins the rapport of the young Lakers.

My guess is that a good number of current Laker players are going to be traded away this year or next year. That will not be any great loss.
posted by rdr at 12:47 AM on July 2, 2018


Man, the All Star game is going to be a Globetrotters-Generals game next season.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:59 AM on July 2, 2018 [9 favorites]


I hope LeBron enjoys watching the Finals on TV. The Western Conference is brutal.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:13 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Question since I know very little about basketball: are contracts limited to four years?
posted by hoyland at 5:18 AM on July 2, 2018


Man, the All Star game is going to be a Globetrotters-Generals game next season.

It'll be such a let down from their usual all out effort style of play....oh, wait....

Anyway, the NBA planned ahead for this eventuality with last year's team captains choosing their squads. It will be tough to pick those captains this year though unless they go with "strongest Twitter game" as one of the criteria for selection so Embiid can take over from the East.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:23 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


In the NBA, under the new-ish collective bargaining agreement, a team can offer a free agent up to a 4-year deal, with a maximum salary set as a fraction of the salary cap. There is an exception that allows a team to offer some of its own free agents, that it drafted and that meet certain all-star benchmarks, a fifth year and a bigger max. (There seems to be a 6-year extension option, but it's pretty rare and doesn't apply here.)

LeBron has eschewed max-term contracts for the past few years, signing 2-year contracts with a player option for the second year, because he's earned enough money and is a big enough star that the security of a 4-year contract isn't significant for him, but the pressure on his team to keep working to keep him is.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:28 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Man, the All Star game is going to be a Globetrotters-Generals game next season.

That would actually suggest an upgrade in defensive efflort.
posted by midmarch snowman at 6:20 AM on July 2, 2018 [6 favorites]


Philly fan here, so I’m a little salty. This is very clearly not about winning championships, but setting up himself and his family for life beyond retirement. Which I totally get. But all the Lakers coverage is going to be super annoying this year.
posted by gnutron at 6:40 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


"Sign with the Lakers or they'll bring my talk show back" is a very potent motivator.
posted by delfin at 6:49 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Not a sports fan but it's pretty clear from the post season that the Lakers will have a nice long stretch returning to the traditional number two position behind the Celtics.
posted by sammyo at 7:32 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Relevant: We cheer for clothes SLYT
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 8:20 AM on July 2, 2018


traditional number two position behind the Celtics.

Alphabetically.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:33 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


For those who haven't been following basketball, this is a landmark move not only because LeBron joined the Lakers in particular, but because he signed with literally any team in the Western Conference. LeBron's teams -- first the Cleveland Cavaliers, then the Miami Heat, and then Cleveland again -- have made it to the NBA finals as champions of the Eastern Conference every year since 2011.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:45 AM on July 2, 2018 [4 favorites]


I still really don't get it from a pure basketball perspective - the West is brutal, the East is mostly a cakewalk (yeah, I see you there Boston, but c'mon, you just lost to the '17-'18 Cavs, pipe down for a while), and Philly felt like it made a ton of sense. But I do understand the cultural appeal of LA, and as Deadspin pointed out, Bron appears to trust the current leadership of the Lakers more than he ever trusted Dan Gilbert.
posted by protocoach at 9:55 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


And as a Philly fan, I can say with no doubt in my mind that if his top priority was stable front-office leadership and clear prospects for the future LeBron had every reason in the world to get as far from the Sixers as possible.

Oh, what could have been if not for Bryan Colangelo's wife's Twitter accounts.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:59 AM on July 2, 2018


I'm looking forward to Lebron averaging a triple double (or close enough) while trying to keep the team over .500 and dealing with Lavar Ball tweeting nonstop about how the reason the Lakers aren't doing well is that his son needs the ball more.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:03 AM on July 2, 2018


Lebron James this year, someone like Kawhi Leonard or Kevin Durant next year, and LA will have something.
posted by pracowity at 10:19 AM on July 2, 2018


LeBron tried to get KD to go to the Lakers with him but it didn’t happen. They got JaVale McGee instead.

And as a Blazers fan I’m upset about the entire NBA rn bc we are so screwed.
posted by gucci mane at 10:22 AM on July 2, 2018


Folks around here in Akron aren't too upset about it this time around, mostly because LeBron brought a championship to town, but also because he didn't announce his decision this time like a jackass by humiliating us with an hour-long televised masturbation video.
posted by slogger at 11:31 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


What is the over/under on Ball being out of Los Angeles? What are the odds he is the first one out?

LeBron James wants teammates who can knock down three point shots and play tough defense.

I can't wait for the season to begin.
posted by bukvich at 12:22 PM on July 2, 2018


On the one hand as a Cavs fan, I hate that this team is going to be completely turned over to Dan Gilbert, who is a world-class idiot-billionaire. The Cavs are going to be nationally irrelevant now for probably the rest of my life. But, man, even if I sold my sports soul for that 2016 title, I will never regret that.

This last three and a half minutes is as good as it gets.


I will never forget me and LeBron and JR and Ty Lue and Fred McLeod crying that night.

Growing up when and where LeBron did, playing on the same courts that he played on when we were kids, getting to watch so much of his career will always be special.

Also, G.O.A.T. tweet.
posted by Regal Ox Inigo at 12:36 PM on July 2, 2018 [6 favorites]




Blazers just got Curry.
posted by gucci mane at 8:05 PM on July 2, 2018


That's Seth Curry.
posted by rdr at 8:35 PM on July 2, 2018


It isn't just that the Warriors get Cousins, but they got him for the Mid-Level Exception 5.3 million which is a little less than the amount the Timberwolves signed Anthony Tolliver. When the Pacers end up paying Doug McDermott 22 million for three years and Demarcus Cousins goes to the defending champs for a lot less, something is out of whack.
posted by gusottertrout at 11:15 PM on July 2, 2018


Rondo, eh?
posted by pracowity at 12:51 AM on July 3, 2018


Well, the crutches do tend to limit Boogie’s post game.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:42 AM on July 3, 2018


Yeah, but you know somebody would've been willing to take a gamble on him for more in order to boost their chances at a title, if anybody outside the state of California had a chance at a title.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 4:48 AM on July 3, 2018


One of the reasons the Warriors can take Cousins is that they can let him sit for a good chunk of the season. The Warriors already know they're going to the playoffs. They just need to get him enough playing time before the playoffs to make certain that he can work with the other players. There aren't many other teams that can afford that relaxed an attitude about the regular season.
posted by rdr at 5:25 AM on July 3, 2018


Cousins at a reasonable salary would be hard for any team to sign to a one year deal if they wanted to contend, but for the price of a bench player there should be a lot more that would have taken the chance, assuming of course they hadn't already ran up against the cap. I figured LA signing Rondo was a sign they were going for Cousins in the way teams a lot of teams try to woo guys by signing their buddies. Is having McDermott for a full season really going to put a team closer to the finals than Cousins for half a year? There's a risk he doesn't come back from the injury, but the gain from having McDermott isn't so great that going with a minimum salary alternative plus Cousins wouldn't be the better play.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:47 AM on July 3, 2018


I cannot wait/and desperately hoping to see LeBron boot LaVar and all the Balls.

Meanwhile, this tweet about the Eastern Conference made me laugh. (Mashable did a good roundup of hilarious reaction tweets.)
posted by TwoStride at 5:59 AM on July 3, 2018


Doesn't bode well for his legacy at all, he will just get beat by the Warriors one or two rounds earlier than he did three of the last four years.
posted by e1c at 9:52 AM on July 3, 2018


Another reaction from Akron, here's what our mayor posted on Instagram yesterday...

mayordanhorrigan #Akron knows that @kingjames is the greatest just as much for what he does on the court, as for what he does off it. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for all you did and continue to do for our great city. Always #JustAKidFromAkron
posted by slogger at 10:51 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


Doesn't bode well for his legacy at all, he will just get beat by the Warriors one or two rounds earlier than he did three of the last four years.

It won't hurt his legacy one bit. Everyone who thinks he's the GOAT will still say "He didn't have the supporting cast he needed and the Warriors were overloaded!"; everyone who doesn't will still say "He couldn't elevate a team like [insert their fave here] could!"
posted by Etrigan at 11:35 AM on July 3, 2018


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