Tyler Carter

Avid Vikings Fan, Grandfathered in Commanders Supporter

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@FreshnClean99 yikes

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

Ayton is easily the best big option we could’ve had this offseason besides Mitchell

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@BrysonAkinsNBA Bilal at around 4 year 80 is good in my book, hopefully it’s a descending contract also

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@JaydenPlzSlide They really scared of us 🗣️

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@TheDunkCentral @JakeLFischer @BleacherReport oh god no lmao

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@JustFreshKicks $255?!?!?!

[Dev3x💫 @CommanderDev3x]

PGs- Trae Young, Bub Carrington, S Cooper

SGs- AJ D, Tre Johnson, J Hardy

SFs- Lebron James,Kyshawn George, Will Riley

PFs- Anthony Davis, Bilal C, Marvin Bagley

Cs Alex Sarr, Mitchell Robinson, J Reese

Don’t Run @NBA

[Daman Rangoola @damanr]

LeBron James, Laker Champion

LeBron James’ Lakers tenure has ended at 8 seasons, his longest stretch with a single team in his career. That meant eight offseasons and eight trade deadlines — sixteen transaction cycles of news, excitement, chaos, and exhaustion. It feels almost impossible to take a breath and step back, but I’ll try.

The one thing that I think has absolutely been forgotten is the state of the Lakers when LeBron James arrived. Lakers ownership had just finished firing the owner’s brother, hiring a first time President of Basketball, a first time GM, had a roster full of young, but unproven talent - and most importantly, they were absolutely rudderless. Let’s be very clear here: the Lakers were on their way to being a decade-long mediocrity. LeBron James didn’t go the Kawhi route and demand a trade for a co-star, he just signed with the team, and for that I will be forever grateful. He WAS the franchise savior, there is no other way to view that.

Now, the Klutch angle. The Lakers may bristle at being “pushed around” to do things like trade for Anthony Davis. But look at what the Lakers were doing that same offseason. They insulted and low-balled Ty Lue. Then, on the day they introduced Frank Vogel — the guy who had originally agreed to be the lead assistant — Magic Johnson went on television and trashed everything about the organization. So yeah, you got pushed around by Klutch to trade for AD, and thank god for that.

LeBron would go on to carry the franchise to a championship, the same year that he carried them through the untimely death of Kobe Bryant, followed by a global pandemic. I was asked on a podcast appearance I did the day LeBron signed about my expectations as far as championships, my answer: Set the over/under at 0.5. LeBron hit the over. Mission accomplished, end of story.

Were there lows that followed? Was the Russell Westbrook trade the worst trade of all time? I think so, and I think it’s stupid to pretend that LeBron didn’t push for that either - of course he did, it was a mistake, and it ended the title window for the team. But LeBron didn’t make the trade himself, I’d be much more amenable to the fact that LeBron James and Klutch were some overbearing pains in the asses if the organization actually had their own basketball principles and philosophies to fall back on. To date, I have seen no evidence of that.

I find myself defending LeBron today and his legacy as a Laker, but at the same time I don’t blame anybody for the relationship ending today. This was a relationship that had its ups and downs and both sides find themselves at a crossroads where saying goodbye is the most logical outcome. The Lakers have to build their franchise around their next centerpiece in Luka Doncic, and while LeBron James gave Luka the space to be himself, LeBron’s stature is too large for this team to not take it’s cues from him - it is time for the franchise to become Luka’s, fully and unmistakably. For LeBron, whether it’s commuting to San Francisco, or ending his story book career where it started, I can appreciate how those options just feel better to him today.

LeBron’s Lakers tenure was messy, political, dramatic, and eventually exhausting. But that cannot be separated from what came before him: a franchise with no direction, no credibility, and no obvious path back to relevance. He chose the Lakers without demanding a co-star first. He made them matter again. He helped deliver Anthony Davis. He won a championship. Everything after that can be debated, but the central fact cannot: LeBron James came to Los Angeles and did the job.

LeBron James, Laker Champion

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@DraftKings and 1/24th Wizards next year 🔥

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@nfr_podcast Cry Baby number 1 and zay cooked

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

Extremely Unlikely buttttt

Trae
AJ
LeBron
AD
Sarr

followed

Bub
George
Bilal
Riley
Mitch Robinson 👀

Jamir
Champagnie
Vuk
A shooter

Would be legit 🤧

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

Lebron to DC

[Los Angeles Lakers @Lakers]

Thank you, LeBron 💜💛

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@lockedonwizards hanging up the phone

[Al Smizzle @AlZeidenfeld]

This is possibly the most accurate tweet of all time.

[judy hilarious @sagebeatlove_]

They’re talking about Jaylen Brown like he rushed back from an Achilles tear just to kill the chemistry of the 2 seed trying to be his old self and blow a 3-1 lead, all while one leg was smaller than the other. Wild to me.

[Slick @NickStillHere]

Being selective about who you hoop with is essential cause niggas like that have nothing to live for

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@GregFinberg @DraftKings If you saw free money on the ground, you’d pick it up right? 😂

[Tyler Carter @Tylaw_]

@SaycheeseDGTL A person in 2038 def gonna need $40 at this rate 😂