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The only one here in Los Angeles who has the real power to temporarily freeze and silence all the drama that LeBron James’ team has created in the chaos is actually LeBron James’ total greatness. It makes sense that it would be an act of ignorance.
The Lakers have had a mediocre basketball grunt this season – low-frequency frustration pumped by mediocre and anxiety: Russell Westbrook’s drama. Anthony Davis’ present tense, but shocking nonetheless Injury stretching. Traded or untraded future first-round draft picks. LeBron’s constant passive-aggressive attempts have forced the team’s hand on the matter, prompting his GM of one of his rivals to snipe his CBS Sports. Say it out loud. ”
LeBron’s Lakers team is 24-28 and 13th in a tight Western Conference. Like so many others, the lottery, the play-ins, or the outright playoffs the team that might make its way between his berths is shrouded in noise. of a King James team that falls short of his supposed royal standards.
But that noise is going to pause, at least for a while. Because LeBron’s lifelong pursuit of Michael Jordan is about to be supercharged by hunting down another all-time great.
As you know, just 89 points from now, LeBron reigns as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. In that moment, the Lakers reach out again from a team of disappointments and transform into a team that touches the pinnacle of greatness in the hoops.
For at least one night, banality replaces bravado. Festival frustration. A mediocre feeling at best for a real, deserved moment of basketball glory.
Is there enough freedom from anxiety – enough joy and positivity – to inspire the Lakers’ comeback and run from now until the end of the season? maybe not. The NBA Championship probably won’t last.
But with purple and gold sitting at the center of the basketball universe, the game’s most talked-about team once again emanating from downtown Los Angeles, and the Lakers at large, often with weary, jealous eyes It is a reminder of what you are aiming for. – Will surge again, even if only temporarily.
Of course, winning is great. But it’s no different than watching a Lakers great take on the history of the sport.
Casually but confidently, Lakers sources speculate that LeBron would and always wanted to break this record under the rafters where No. 33 lives. With his current scoring percentage, he is on pace to overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points next week.
Those within the Lakers organization hope Starr will score enough points in the next two road games in Indiana and New Orleans to ensure he surpasses Kareem’s mark at home against Oklahoma City next Tuesday. It’s a nationally televised game against Milwaukee, Kareem’s former NBA team and the club of current Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
That torch has passed brings much-needed respite from what has been a long season, with a brief respite from so much noise for a while.
Russ cut ties with LeBron and ‘let’s have some fun’? We’ll figure it out later. Building a brutal roster? I don’t care about history. AD-as-Humpty-Dumpty Anxiety? I will worry about it later. host? Even they can’t whistle (or fail) about this. What LeBron is going to do is truly, utterly amazing.
The Lakers, their fans, and the rest of us can enjoy this moment while hiding our curiosity about what happens six weeks, or six months, from LeBron’s 38,388th point.
This is preceded by the great magic the Lakers weave from an otherwise disappointing season.
On April 13, 2016, the Lakers’ 17-win season came to its merciful end. I was at the Staples Center last night, Kobe Bryant’s last. That season’s jokes, snarks and skepticism vanished when Kobe rewound the year and racked up the points: 60 points.
It was his mark, a number that was inevitably felt as the game progressed, shot after shot, Kobe’s place in the game and moments of beauty like that, even in the most unmanicured yard. It was one reminder after another of how you can blossom with splendor. Season.
It was goodbye, yes, and very different from what LeBron claims to be when he becomes the new standard-bearer in NBA scoring history. Even in a disappointing Lakers season, you can still be in awe with the greatest players of all time demonstrating their greatest ever, lighting up the arena in a way that losing teams rarely do.
That night, Kobe attended a packed post-game press conference, beaming with joy and greatness, hypnotized by what he had accomplished and how it summed up his illustrious and illustrious career. I was surrounded by so many journalists.
Something similar awaits us all next week. And if LeBron manages to do that—if he takes the top spot and the brilliance that that means—washes the league into a historic night, perhaps the same sort of joy recalibrates the Lakers’ season now. I can. lasting feeling.
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