When it comes to LeBron James’ Lakers legacy, Angelenos have no one to blame but themselves

To understand LeBron James’ legacy with the Lakers, you have to rewind to the beginning. 

You know, the period Lakers fans may have blocked out. 

It was dismal. It was ugly. It was dark. 

The 17-time NBA champions had plunged into their worst chapter in franchise history, missing the playoffs five straight seasons. During the slide, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss fired her older brother, Jim Buss, as the executive vice president of basketball operations and Mitch Kupchak as general manager. 

The team was rudderless. 

Then the guy who’s in a one-horse race with Michael Jordan for the greatest player of all-time decided to come to LA in free agency in 2018, breathing new life into a flailing franchise as though he were inflating a withered balloon. 

James was the NBA’s “it” guy.

He had just carried the Heat and Cavaliers to eight straight Finals, winning three championships. And he chose to bring his talents to LA, joining a bunch of young guys who couldn’t even scrounge their way into the first round of the playoffs. 

That changed everything. 

After one injury-riddled season that included James missing 17 straight games and eventually being shutdown after it became clear they weren’t going to make the playoffs, things dramatically shifted. 

James recruited Anthony Davis to the Lakers in 2019. In his second season with the Lakers, he led them to their first championship in a decade in 2020. 

During that time, it’s not hyperbolic to say that James was Los Angeles’ north star 

In January 2020, Kobe Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash alongside his daughter, Gianna, and eight others. 

James helped mend a brokenhearted city. 

He got a tattoo of a Black Mamba in honor of Bryant, who spent all 20 seasons of his career with the Lakers, leading them to five championships. In the Lakers’ first game after Bryant’s death, James took the microphone and addressed the nearly 20,000 fans at Staples Center as he choked back tears, calling Lakers Nation a family. 

Eight months later, he was hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy, honoring Los Angeles’ hero in the only way that would’ve meant something to him: Making the Lakers champions again. 

James spent eight seasons in Los Angeles, his longest consecutive stretch anywhere.

The Lakers made the playoffs in six of them. James made mistakes, such as helping convince the Lakers to break up their championship core to acquire Russell Westbrook in 2021, a disaster which led the team missing the postseason in 2022. 

But ahead of the 2022 trade deadline, he also played a hand in forcing Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka to deal Westbrook and acquire six new players, which led to them reaching the 2023 Western Conference Finals against the Nuggets, who were the eventual champions. 

During his time in Los Angeles, James became the league’s all-time leading scorer. He shattered nearly every record in the book for a player his age each season. He made the Lakers consistently one of the most interesting stories in the league. 

He was the biggest draw in a city that has Hollywood.

Lakers games would regularly be filled with A-list celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Denzel Washington, Justin Beiber and Jay-Z . James had the top-selling jersey in the league five straight seasons from 2019-2023. 

James made the Lakers fun. He made them interesting. With James, the Lakers were always a championship threat.

Even after the Lakers stunned the basketball word by acquiring Luka Doncic in Feb. 2025 in exchange for Davis, James was willing to do anything it took to win, including becoming the team’s third option. 

After embracing a role that no other player of his caliber had accepted when they could still be a star, he helped the Lakers go on a 16-2 run last spring. Then after Doncic and Austin Reaves suffered injuries in April, James put the Lakers on his arthritic back and carried them past the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. 

James’ tenure in Los Angeles deserves to be celebrated.

He resuscitated the organization. He made them relevant again. He put the glitz and glamour back into a franchise that relied on those things as their oxygen. 

By the end of his career, pundits and columnists were clamoring for the Lakers to move on without James.

The Lakers were Doncic’s team. James was an expensive distraction who had commanded $52.6 million last season, and would demand at least another $25-$35 million if he re-signed for another run. 

But when James pulled the plug on his Lakers tenure on Tuesday, suddenly the tone felt very different. 

The city felt dimmer.

The Lakers’ title hopes felt farther away without a guy who had won four championships and never missed a playoff game over his 23-year-career. Even though James is about to play in his unprecedented 24th season and turn 42, he’s still the biggest story in the NBA. 

Los Angeles just got a lot less interesting. 

It’s our loss. 

Really, it’s our fault. 

Angelenos never quite adored James in the same way they idolized Bryant and Magic Johnson, both of whom spent their entire careers with the Lakers. James never interwove himself into the fabric of the colorful city, becoming a permanent piece of its tapestry. 

Why? Because he won championships elsewhere? Because the Lakers weren’t the ones who drafted him?

While Bryant and Johnson were venerated as Los Angeles’ heroes at the end of their time with the Lakers, James was practically shown the front door.

Our mistake.

James did so much for the city. 

And only now that he’s gone are we going to realize how much we miss him. 

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