LeBron James has chosen to leave the Los Angeles Lakers after eight seasons this summer, but despite spending nearly a decade together, this didn’t seem like a very happy relationship for the most part. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne called it a marriage that was often transactional and cold, and FS1’s Colin Cowherd agrees.
Cowherd explained what the James-Lakers relationship was like on The Herd while reacting to Shelburne’s remarks.
“This was not a love affair,” Cowherd said. “It was transactional. It never felt like Kobe [Bryant]. It never felt like [James] Worthy. It never felt like Michael Cooper… It was a transactional relationship. And LeBron sort of aged out of the Lakers plans. And LeBron has always loved that movie, The Godfather… It’s his favorite movie or one of his favorite movies.
“You know, in The Godfather, we all know this is, people pay their respects to you,” Cowherd continued. “And if indeed you do leave Cleveland twice or you do leave Miami, hey, it’s nothing personal. It’s just business. It’s just business. Well, that’s what the Lakers said. It’s nothing personal. This was always transactional. You didn’t feel like a founder. You were more of a consultant. And the Lakers moved on.”
Cowherd says the Lakers were classy in allowing James and his agent, Rich Paul, to win the exit. Paul had claimed the team wanted his client to stay, but he chose to leave. It would appear they weren’t all too desperate to keep him, and NBA analyst Ric Bucher praised the Lakers for allowing James to present it as if this were his decision.
“The interesting part of this is when Ramona reports, according to her sources, that LeBron was willing to take a pay cut,” Cowherd said. “But LeBron wanted to see how the money was being spent. And the Lakers are like, ‘We’re not going through you anymore. We’re going to spend it how we want to spend it.’
“And LeBron took that as things have changed,” Cowherd continued. “But my question was always, do the Lakers have the courage to move off LeBron? Because LeBron’s people were like, ‘Okay, I’ll take the cut. What are you doing with it?’ And that may have worked five years ago, but now it was, no, we’re not going to ask you for permission to make moves on Walker Kessler. We like him. We’re buying him.
“So this always felt like LeBron and the Lakers were creating an alliance, two great houses,” Cowherd added. “And now one is on its way to do something else.”
Neither the Lakers nor the city of Los Angeles embraced James the way they had embraced Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, and others. The 41-year-old might be the only all-time great who wasn’t. Lakers governor Jeanie Buss was, in fact, reportedly so frustrated with James that she wanted to trade him in 2022.
So, once the Lakers found their new face of the franchise in Luka Doncic, they were comfortable putting James to the side. When it’s a transactional relationship, you tend to start acting differently toward your partner when the situation is not as advantageous to you as it once was.
James’ interests were no longer a priority for the Lakers with Doncic around, and that was the sign for him to walk away. It will be fascinating to see where he goes now.
