LeBron James and the issues with his NBA season

Is the King dead? This is perhaps the fundamental question left to us in the dying embers of the NBA regular season. This hasn’t been the LeBron we’re accustomed to seeing, the relentless warrior-robot that consumes elite competition with the ease that most of us usually reserve for mundane things, like eating or sleeping. LeBron James seems mortal now, and it shows.

Things just haven’t clicked in LA, and this has had a ripple effect throughout the league. The Lakers have been sub-par, whether through a young core that’s been destabilised through trade rumours, an unusually long injury layoff for LeBron or veteran signings that haven’t worked out. More than that, the removal of LeBron from the east has led to several teams rising out of his shadow and becoming playoff contenders.

The Lakers have been dire, and to some extent, it is LeBron’s fault

LeBron, even by his standards, is having a pretty good season. He’s averaging 27.1 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.0 assists, only 0.1 points off his career average for points and up considerably in the other two metrics (7.4 and 7.2 respectively). Yet it hasn’t been enough to salvage the Lakers (30-35) season, who even with James have lost to teams of the dubious calibre of the (league worst) Phoenix Suns. They even suffered a 119-112 reverse to the New York Knicks, a team so apocalyptically bad that it sometimes seems that they don’t know they’re playing basketball.

The Lakers have been dire, and to some extent, it is LeBron’s fault. Now I’m not suggesting for a second that LeBron is heavily involved with trade deals, but his handling of the Anthony Davis saga could have been far better. When the Lakers upper management offered pretty much their entire young core for the Pelicans superstar, LeBron didn’t come out and express his overwhelming happiness with his current set up. Instead, he stated that he would love for Davis to be part of his team, and that’s before we consider that Rich Paul, the agent they share, urged Davis to put in a trade request. Paul has made it clear before that his relationship with James is less player-agent and more of a collaborative effort, in a sense suggesting that it was LeBron, through Paul, that wanted Davis on the Lakers, regardless of the cost.

The team clearly isn’t playing for LeBron

This has resulted in alienating and demoralising the team, losing ten of their last twelve games and dropping to the 11^th seed in the western conference. The team clearly isn’t playing for LeBron and his production by himself isn’t going to get him into the playoffs in a far tougher conference. It’s an unusual situation as LeBron is used to having a pedestrian supporting cast and still getting the job done. The usual assumption that putting LeBron on any team would result in contender doesn’t hold up anymore and the implications of that are legacy defining.

We must compare the East and the West. LeBron sucked the air out of the Eastern conference, regularly crushing entire franchises through little more than just force of will. He seemed to hold a personal grudge against the Toronto Raptors, sweeping them three years in a row. He achieved a record eight NBA finals appearances and brought Cleveland its first title in any sport in 52 years.

We hold James to a higher standard and acknowledge him as truly special, an outlier

These are monumental achievements, providing LeBron with the argument that he is the greatest of all time. Yet they were achieved in the east. LeBron has put up similar stats and yet is not making a discernible difference in the Western Conference. Yes, the teams are stronger out west and we must question whether all of LeBron’s achievements are mitigated by the fact he was simply in a weaker conference, but that’s not all that’s at stake.

LeBron is 34. He’s played around 1190 games at the very highest level expected. The reason a Lakers side who have missed the playoffs for the previous five years missing out again is such big news is because of LeBron’s very status. We hold James to a higher standard and acknowledge him as truly special, an outlier.

The idea of losing that greatness, the very thing that makes LeBron exceptional, is something we all recoil against, and every loss, every air-ball and bewildered stare is something to mourn. We don’t want to lose our heroes, and every time LeBron shows that he is mortal, we lose a part of ourselves.