After eight seasons with the Lakers, including leading the franchise to the 2020 NBA championship, James departs and enters free agency set to join a new team.
Lakers president Rob Pelinka and Rich Paul spoke a short time ago about the four-time champion's plans, sources said. James chose to inform the Lakers well before start of free agency tonight out of courtesy and appreciation for their run together, and to allow LA to conduct its offseason business.
.@DiMarzio: “I smiled a little bitterly at the reconstructions Chelsea made [on Enzo Maresca in their statement]. They imposed a version of the story you will all have clearly understood did not happen.
“City had to pay a whopping €20M to release Maresca and make him manager. Chelsea insisted on a reconstruction of the story, making it seem Maresca caused damage to the club, only thinking about Manchester City, by resigning he created problems for the club, and all these various reconstructions tell a distorted truth.
“Chelsea is in a very particular situation where the manager can’t always act with complete autonomy and independence, and that’s what happened with Enzo Maresca, who at a certain point had to say enough because the situation was unbearable.
“Now the whole thing has been twisted to try to get out of it cleanly with the fans, but everyone in the know knows the truth isn’t what was told by the power of a press release and money…” [via @tuttonapoli/@Sport_Witness]
It’s been revealed that Tah, who had never taken a penalty before in his life, had to take the 6th penalty because nobody else had the guts to step up. I‘ll never hate on players for missing their pens, the real devils are veterans like Goretzka who refused to step up.