ACE 🍌

Serious NBA Beat Writer/Insider.
You heard it here first.

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

THAT'S IT. GIVE BRIAN WINDHORST THE GOLDEN GLOBE 🏆!!!
@WindhorstESPN #Mindhunter #WhatsGoingOnInUtah

[GoldenKnight @GoldenKnightGFX]

So happy for Adou. Been one of the ones saying he should get playing time since last year. Him & Carr both should this year. It’s a younger team. It’s a new shift. NBA teams play rookies & sophomores even in the playoffs. We should too.

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

100%

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

@ESPNLosAngeles @WindhorstESPN @Corporate_Greg @Sedano @ScottKaplan @CMMSpectrum @LindseyBaseball @M_Funch @Hawkins_Deondre For what the Lakers paid and for the options they had, Ayton wasn’t a failure. How much does Windy think they’re giving up to get Kuminga?

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

100%

[NBABase @TheNBABase]

Zach Lowe:

"Eight years ago I wrote a piece about the supermax and how it was forcing teams into very painful decisions with home-grown superstars. And the tentpole for it was Jimmy Butler."

"If you draft a player and he becomes a success story to the point Jaylen Brown did, Finals MVP, Champion, beloved in the community, it just feels viscerally wrong that his contract becomes something you want to get rid of... something is wrong with a system that turns home-grown stars, in some cases not all, into albatross contracts."

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

@LakeShowYo @VickNanExel Yes please.

[six 🇬🇭 @Sixfever]

Kevin love said it too

[Kendall Baker @kendallbaker]

Update: The dinner was a disaster

[Bill Simmons @BillSimmons]

Going LIVE on Netflix with a new BS Podcast tomorrow at 11ET / 8am PT, will give u all my thoughts then — in the mean time here’s CR finding out about the trade

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

🏀It's time we stop overlooking Lakers legend—
Paul George.

After successfully sabotaging both the Clippers and Celtics, his contributions to the purple and gold can no longer be ignored.

Where does he rank among the franchise's all-time greats? And when is it finally time to start talking about retiring No. 13 in the rafters at Crypto?

[The Ringer @ringer]

You guys want the video?
You guys want the video.
Okay, we’ll show you the video.

[Quentin Grimes @qdotgrimes]

💜💛

[LakersMuse @LALMuse]

Just listen to how much Marcus Smart being on the Lakers meant to Luka Doncic 😔

“I mean it’s insane, it’s every game he does something new to help us win. I was very excited for this singing in the summer and I was right.”

[SM Highlights @SMHighlights1]

This Clip Right Here Should Symbolize The LeBron Tenure In LA:

“We will forever remember how important and special he was for the Los Angeles Lakers. this was a team morning the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. LeBron was able to bring that team together. Bring that city together and bring that group to a championship to finish off the season. This is storybook stuff. I still hear Frank Vogel’s voice echoing in my ear saying “he’s been our lion. He’s been our leader and we follow him wherever he goes.” He lead an entire city through impossible time.”

Kobe passing away and leaving the city of LA heartbroken. Then, in the NBA Bubble, LeBron James brought home a championship for LA.

Thank You LeBron 🫡

[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

[Legion Hoops @LegionHoops]

LeBron really brought the Lakers from a 6-year playoff drought to an NBA title in two years.

He deserves his respect.

[SB Nation @SBNation]

LEBRON'S FIRST POINTS AS A LOS ANGELES LAKER

(🎥: @NBA)

[LeBron James @KingJames]

No, THANK YOU! Truly a honor to wear the 💜💛 while trying to continuing the greatness & legacies that came before me! Hope I made a few proud during my stint. 🙏🏾🫡👑

[O’Shea Jackson Jr @OsheaJacksonJr]

Thank you LeBron James. Can’t wait to hang up that 23 in Crypto. I guess our relationship wouldn’t be right if I didn’t get to boo you one last time lol.

Much love @KingJames. We’ll always have DisneyWorld.

#LAbron

[ACE 🍌 @fullcourtace]

Thank you Bron! 😭💜💛

[Lakers All Day Everyday @LADEig]

I’ll never forget when LeBron ripped up the script and spoke from the heart after Kobe’s death… he’ll always be a huge part of the Lakers family 🥹