Lakers’ grade is an incomplete
James and Pelinka are proud of what team has accomplished and hope to finish job.
the world hadn’t become paralyzed by the novel coronavirus, LeBron James would not have entertained a question about what his team had accomplished so far — not this April.
If basketball and its future hadn’t become secondary to an increasingly unsettled public health situation, James would have volleyed back a question about the past and said he tries to live in the present.
And the question would have been asked in person.
Instead, about two dozen Los Angeles-based reporters logged into a Zoom video conference Wednesday afternoon and were joined by a smiling James, who checked in from his home in Brentwood.
When he was asked whether he would have any closure with the team’s accomplishments if the season doesn’t resume, James accepted the hypothetical.
“Closure? No,” James said. “But to be proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish to this point, I’ll be able to look back and be like, ‘OK, we did something special in that small period of time.’ ”
The Lakers are not assuming the season is over, but they are allowing themselves to reflect on what it would mean if it was. They have the best record in the Western Conference, second only to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA, and had qualified to make a playoff appearance for the first time since the 2012-13 season before the league suspended operations March 11.
Players are staying in shape as much as possible — a task easier for some than others. James, for example, has access to an outdoor court at his own home and private facilities that friends of his offered for his use.
Their coaches are still preparing for playoff possibilities and studying potential matchups. Their front office is still preparing for the offseason and the draft.
“I start every day with thoughts and prayers for the health of the world,” said Rob Pelinka, the Lakers general manager and vice president of basketball operaIf tions. “But then after that we have an obligation to go forward and do the work that we can in the time that we have.”
Pelinka also met with reporters Wednesday during a Zoom conference call, which he thought served the moment better than a conference call. He checks in with James, coach Frank Vogel and All-Star forward Anthony Davis regularly.
“Just trying to engage us,” James said. “And see where our head is about our team, how we can have weekly conversations with our group, keeping our guys mentally as sharp as possible.”
James and Pelinka remain hopeful that the season will resume, although neither has concrete information to support that hope. Pelinka keeps a quote on his desk at home from Nelson Mandela that extols the power of sports to unite people.
“I think all of us miss it,” Pelinka said. “We’re so used to it. Maybe we’ve taken it for granted in some sense.”
He’d like for the Lakers to have a chance to finish what they started this season.
“I look at our season like a series of tests, and we got a lot of A’s,” Pelinka said. “And we got some A-pluses and some A-minuses. And I think there has been a lot of success in that. We haven’t had the chance to take a final exam yet. But that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna celebrate the A’s that we’ve gotten so far.”
As with James, Pelinka’s children are remotely completing school, and they’ve both developed an appreciation for the teachers who normally spend school days with their kids.
James has often spoken about how difficult an NBA season is on his family — how much he wishes he didn’t have to miss major moments in his children’s lives because of it. They’ve both appreciated the family time and tried to squeeze whatever positives they can out of this.
“I feel like there’s always greener on the other side of the fence,” James said. “I believe that this is a roadblock for all of us, not only as Americans, but for the world. This is a roadblock, it’s a test for all of us. It’s a test of our mental side, our spiritual side, it’s a test for everything. We had grown so comfortable with how we live our life and everyday life that it’s now time to take a pause.”