LeBron James says he’s no longer the face of the Lakers franchise. He gives that title to Anthony Davis, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes.
“He is the face [of the franchise],” James said. “You look at all these [retired] numbers that surround this facility, all the greats that have come here and AD is one of them.”
Davis, who signed a three-year max extension in August, says he feels the need to be a leader.
“I think I’m going to be the second-oldest guy here now so guys lean on me a lot,” he said. “I feel like it’s my responsibility, being one of the leaders of the team alongside Bron. It’s my job to help those guys and help the young guys and continuously being on them. Let them know what we need and what we need to get better and giving them advice so we can all be together and unified to be able to compete for a championship.”
We have more on the Lakers:
- D’Angelo Russell offered a simple explanation as to why he re-signed with the Lakers this summer, McMenamin tweets. “They made me feel wanted,” he said. Russell signed a two-year, $37MM contract at the start of free agency.
- Christian Wood says he’s motivated to disprove the “false narrative” about him, he told Spectrum SportsNet (video link). Wood lingered in free agency much longer than expected before accepting a two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Lakers. “Just ready to prove a lot of people wrong,” he said.
- Davis believes the Lakers are primed for another championship due to the moves the front office made this offseason, according to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. “A lot of teams around the league have made a lot of good moves to improve their teams. We did as well,” Davis said. “So we know every night, going into every game is going to be a battle. I think we’re prepared for it. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. But I like our chances against anybody. We have depth, we have speed, we have shooting, we have ball-handling, we have play-making. We have it all. Now it’s just time to get on the floor.”
Ok Lebron, we totally believe that.
No one becomes a leader just by saying they’re a leader. In fact, when you do that the opposite is true. Look at Kyrie in Boston
AD does not play enough to be an all time great. Potential yes, but probable, no.
Lebron is gone after this year. The fact he hasn’t signed an extension says it all then saying this makes me believe it even more. Either he retires or he ring chases and tries to join a team with KD or Steph.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he signs with whomever has picked his son if his son doesn’t tell him to play on another team…
I agree he’ll leave but I doubt he retires, he will try to play w bronny like Scarlett said but if bronny doesn’t want him to he will ring chase, but I think he’d go to Dallas before GS or suns. Feels like he’d want to avoid winning a ring w his contemporaries/rivals, I imagine he’d wanna do it w someone who hasn’t won yet like luka or embiid so his impact is more magnified . Altho he has hinted at playing w Steph before so who knows
James has a 51 million dollar plater option for next season. UFA after that.
The Lakers are title favourites after their off season… Definitely one of the best if not the best off seasons in the NBA…
They aren’t though.
Other than the Nuggets there isn’t a team that I’d say are stronger on paper…
LeBron is old and AD is AD so injuries could easily derail their title chances… But on paper they will be hard to beat…
And I am somewhat of a Lakers hater… But a spade is a spade…
Nuggets Bucks and arguably suns are better
They aren’t the “favorites” Nuggets, Suns, Celtics, and Bucks, all have better odds of winning it all. A spade is a spade.
AD didn’t account for his inevitable injury or injuries to make him miss a large chunk of games. Same with Bron. The Lakers have better depth now but those two have to be healthy.