Yeah, that's my read---he wants to be sure they add now since he cares not at all about 2028 or 2030 (or any rookie in 2026). Maybe it's Trae Young, maybe Kyrie, maybe Collins but he wants someone else there to help carry the load and is playing the PR game to get team to do it his way
I would put the odds of a 1 year "retirement" at 1% and the odds of a permanent retirement at 0.000001%.
I can see him sitting out a year, then moving onto whoever drafts Bronny. LeBron has a ton of mileage on the tires
He just got swept out of the playoffs and now people are talking about if Lebron will retire and not the fact that his team was swept.
Kobe had 60 in his last game. (a meaningless game for a 17-win Laker team.)
I don't think he retires but I think he starts to really load manage the regular season, playing no more than 40-50 games. After this year he could easily do the Clemens thing and show up in January/Feb with his contender of choice. One year it's with Bronny, the next with Denver, etc. He could do that for 4-5 more years if he wants. Go full mercenary and get his 6-7 titles.
He ain't getting those 6-7 titles.
There are recent indications that Bronny isn’t on board with that plan and LeBron wants to respect that by not pushing it..
They can only deal the 2029 or 2030 pick, and some swaps in there.
How do they do that? Release everyone, right? So you have Lebron-Davis-Kyrie-Vanderbilt and something like $120M spent right?
I'm not putting anything past the guy if he really decides to ring chase and adjusts his salary to fit whatever team he picks halfway through the season. Not saying it's particularly likely, but it's never really been tested with a guy of his caliber (still).
That is the rumor, but unless Kyrie does something crazy like take the mid-level exception, I can't seen any way the Lakers can keep Reaves and Hachimura while adding Kyrie. Which, to me, is a net negative for them even before you consider Kyrie's narcissism and brittleness. So, obviously, I hope it happens.
It's pretty simple honestly, you convince Dallas that they should do what GS did and do a S&T of their guy they would lose for DeAngelo Russell.
I've seen a couple rumors today about Young and the Lakers, and I don't get it. Other than Anthony Davis, the Lakers have nothing remotely valuable enough to offer Atlanta for Young, and while the thought of a swap involving those two makes me smile (without giving it any thought, that would have to be the biggest defensive downgrade via trade in history), I don't see why either team would do it.
Fit-wise I believe they just want talent and expect LeBron will figure it out. They do have an increasing need for someone else to create offensively—-that’s the one thing Trae can really do reliably.
Except if it does happen and doesn't work out the media will hound Kyrie until he takes any deal to get out of town. When the Lkars overspend on a star, even a star Kobe or Lebron wanted, and the guy doesn't turn them into a 70 wun team iti that guy's fault and he needs to go and the league better take him off their hands, like Howard, or Westbrook, etc.
Reaves only has about a $2M cap hold, so they could sign Kyrie and then match any offer on him without renouncing, I think.
4 rebounds 4 assists, 22/50 from the floor, 6/21 from 3 (and it was worse watching it, everyone was trying to get him points to the level that the refs just let guys grab his defender)
I watched this game. It was a good representation of the last part of Kobe’s career, except the Lakers won. While watching it, I checked out the Lakers record in the last few years of his career, and they actually had a better win percentage when he didn’t play than when he did. Both were low.
He was cooked after that Achilles tear. It was painful watching him those last 2 years. Not Celtics Dominique painful but kinda close.
I just looked it up on YouTube. It was a close game (1 possession game until the last few seconds). The refs let the Lakers do whatever they wanted to. Here's the rub, though. That loss dropped Utah to 40-42. If they win, they tie Houston at 41-41. They went 2-2 during the regular season. Next tie-breaker is place within your division. Utah was 3rd, Houston 4th. So that loss took them out of the playoffs.
If they count the phantom head throwback it might end Trae and Harden's careers...
why for sure? most flops are by the offense, to my eyes anyway. Simulating or exaggerating contact to get a whistle and free throws.
Because that's how the league works, same reason when they were emphasizing fines for flops all the fines came on guys flopping trying to draw the charge, same reason you have to full extend shove to get called for a push-off, or just be downfield blocking with both hands or headhunt to get called for an illegal screen.... offense sells.
What I liked about Kobe is he kept the Lakers out of contention for the last 4-5 years of his career with his pure selfishness. You can talk about "best last game" how about worse last year? Kobe's last year has to be one of the least valuable in any sport in history. He took 17 shots a game at an effective field goal percentage of 41%.He took 7 threes a game at 28%. He dropped his career assist average below 5 by averaging only 2.8 assists. Hard to be a creator when the opponents don't need to help because you are no longer a threat. I mean Jeter holding gon the SS as a birthright is up there, but Kobe's last year had to be the worst.
All that after he insisted to take big money on his last deal, as opposed to signing a more team friendly deal that could have resulted in a good free agent going there.
I mean he actively blocked anybody that was a perceived threat to his dominance. If you read between the lines about the praise for Gasol "fitting with Kobe" you can see he was the best player willing to put up with Kobe. To extrapolate Kobe being in so many GOAT conversations today makes me think if Jimmy Fallon's helicopter crashes we will have to listen to "You know the greats Carlin, Lennie Bruce, Fallon etc" in the future.
Kobe had such a status, especially with the Lakers, that he never would accept a lesser role. He was too big to be like Pierce, Vince Carter, and others who adjusted into role players as they got older. Kobe was either going to retire somewhat abruptly, or play extremely poorly until the bitter end.
I agree Kobe was terrible during his last season, but there's no need to insult him like that.
It is valid to claim that Kobe’s place in the all time NBA hierarchy has been elevated by many people due to his tragic passing.
maybe, but also he just had a really rabid fanbase in large part due to stylistic and marketing reasons.
Comparing someone to Jimmy Fallon is a line that shouldn't be crossed lightly.
I'll always be glad that there are people who hate the MFL as much as I do.
If Celtics ownership were stupid enough to reward Pierce with a huge last deal as a retirement gold watch because of his legacy with the Celtics, instead of either agreeing to move on, or take less money to hopefully play for another ring with a good FA with the cap room. almost everyone on this board would have pissed. Kobe held that franchise hostage, and was a big factor in it missing the playoffs for a half decade, and if LeBron didn’t want to be in LA, it probably would have been longer
lol, I was waiting for thisComparing someone to Jimmy Fallon is a line that shouldn't be crossed lightly.
