The NBA - IT'S A NEW WORLD

When we grew up, the National Basketball Association

season ended in late May or early June and the league pretty much left the sports world to Major League Baseball and football previews.  Basketball disappeared until training camps began in October.  My, how things have changed.  

This year the NBA operated a summer league that ran between July 2 and July 17, with games watchable on NBA-TV or ESPN.  Even more important, the NBA now markets its off-season free agent and trading activity so the movement of players, once relegated to the sports section fine print on all except the biggest stars, receives front page treatment in newspapers and “breaking news” status on cable television.  Sports talk radio in every major market – and many smaller ones – crackles with NBA calls all summer.

The Biggest Fish

The presence of four-time league Most Valuable Player LeBron James in the free agent pool made this year’s NBA off season that much more interesting.  Even at 33 and with the wear and tear of 15 NBA seasons (he didn’t play college basketball) on his body, James still has a lot left in the tank.  This year’s NBA playoffs demonstrated that as James carried the undermanned Cleveland Cavilers to the league finals.  That James couldn’t reel in his fourth NBA title (he won two in Miami and the 2016 championship in Cleveland) didn’t diminish the frenzy in seeking his services.

As nearly everyone knows by now, James signed a four year, $154 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, likely

shaking up the pecking order in the NBA’s already brutal Western Conference.  James helps form the nucleus of a good Laker team some think could challenge the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder for second in the west, behind the seemingly invincible Golden State Warriors.  The Warriors won three of the last four NBA titles and appear headed for another, given the addition of center DeMarcus Cousins via free agency to an already packed lineup that includes Kevin Durant, Step Curry, and Klay Thompson.  

What’s LeBron Up To?

James’s decision to sign with the Lakers raised some eyebrows around the league and in the sports media.  Almost any Eastern Conference team with LeBron James on its roster looked like a prime contender for the league finals.  Even if the best teams – Golden State, Houston, Oklahoma City -- play in the west, anything can happen in one series.  Wouldn’t James have given himself a better shot at another league final by staying in the east?

James certainly had personal reasons to sign with the Lakers.  He owns a home in the Los Angeles area and reportedly he and his family particularly enjoy California.   He’s known to have friends inside and outside basketball based in California he’d enjoy being closer to.   A deeper look, however, suggests basketball considerations, and the current-day motivations NBA players have, drove the decision.    

In Los Angeles, James will find a front office dedicated to winning and run by a man who knows a great deal about getting that done.  Earvin “Magic” Johnson calls the shots for the Lakers now as the team’s President of Basketball Operations.  Johnson, of course, won five championships while playing for the Lakers and has always proclaimed himself about winning, first and foremost.  Given his background, it’s reasonable to view Johnson as a player’s executive someone like James would want in the front office.  Johnson probably can shield James from the drama he often experienced in Cleveland, where the on-court and off-court coordination wasn’t always the best.

Though nobody in the Laker organization is saying it out loud, many basketball observers think James will have a measure of control over how the team plays.  He sometimes had to wrestle that control from the front office, coaches, and other players in Cleveland.  He’s likely been promised that in Los Angeles, with Johnson making the promises.  

From a salary cap standpoint, the Lakers are in an excellent

position to keep adding pieces around James through free agency within the span of James’s contract.  It’s almost certain, for example, the Lakers will make a major run at Golden State’s Thompson when he becomes a free agent next year.  If they reel him in, with one move, the Lakers would have strengthened themselves and weakened a primary rival.  Presumably, Thompson isn’t the only target on Johnson’s list.   Johnson, with James as the anchor, could have the Lakers headed for a title very soon.  

So, the decision LeBron James made to sign with the Lakers might have been mainly about basketball.  Two things motivate superior athletes like James – money and the chance to compete for championships.   Whoever signed James was going to pay him pretty much the same money as the Lakers paid, variations in contract length and exact price due to salary cap considerations notwithstanding.  That left the decision to competitive factors.  Viewed in terms of LeBron James’s long term interest in accumulating NBA championships and the way he bonded with Johnson, his decision to cast his lot with the Lakers seems within the realm of reasonable expectations.