South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
King James and his next court
Can LeBron conjure another Summer of 2010?
LOS ANGELES — You think it was easy in Michael Jordan’s shadow? Ask Scottie Pippen.
You think it was graceful growing old alongside Kobe Bryant? Ask Shaquille O’Neal. So now, with the question turning to whether LeBron James can attract top-tier free agents to join him with the Los Angeles Lakers, as was the thesis of a controversy-stoking report from Bleacher Report, why should the expectations be any different?
The difference with Pippen and Shaq is that there never was a choice, until the end, about whether they wanted play side-by-side with alphadog ego.
Now, with the Lakers holding ample cap space going forward, those who will join LeBron will do it by choice. Or not do it at all.
And yet, of Michael, Kobe and LeBron, James also is the most likely to think pass first, to hunt assists just as the others hunted baskets.
The upshot, be it the questions from Kevin Durant, Trevor Ariza and others quoted in the Bleacher Report piece, is that championship collaborations are best coordinated concurrently, such as when Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce came together with the Boston Celtics, or LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Heat.
At that moment, the championship fate or failure is tied together, no matter the order of the names on the marquee.
Do it like James did with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a piecemeal compilation of revolving talent, starting with the acquisition of Kevin Love, and it winds up as the overall LeBron experience in Northeast Ohio.
And while Durant reached championship heights with the Warriors, there already was a championship core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
With the Heat, winning evolved because LeBron and his teammates were willing to evolve. LeBron eventually took his game into the post, Bosh took his to the 3-point line, and Wade went from on-ball dervish to cut-and-slice, off-the-ball machine.
“Anytime you play with great players, you’re going to have to adjust, period,” Bosh told ESPN in the wake of Durant questioning stars flocking to join James with the Lakers. “If I played with Kevin, I would have to change my game. I don’t think it’s worth battling to do more than you have to do.
“He’s going to take a lot of the load and, yeah, you do have to change your game sometimes. But there’s also some aspects to the game where you can come to him and say, ‘Can you change your game?”
With the Heat, it was LeBron as alpha, Wade as beta, Bosh as gamma. Already sated with his first championship, it was easier for Wade to step aside. Having barely tasted playoff success with the Toronto Raptors, Bosh was positioned to sacrifice.
So the three built it together, with Wade eligible to otherwise walk that very 2010 offseason.
In Cleveland, it was LeBron returning to Kyrie Irving’s turf, Love added by trade instead of by choice.
Championship success is foundational. Sometimes it is immediate but also fleeting, as with the AllenPierce-Garnett Celtics. Sometimes it must be reconstituted, as Erik Spoelstra did with the Heat approach with Wade, Bosh and LeBron after the 2011 NBA Finals failure. Sometimes it takes a change at the top for the ultimate leap, as with Steve Kerr being added to the Warriors equation with Curry, Thompson and Green.
But what is happening, or what LeBron’s hope will happen with the Lakers, is different. A reunion with one super friend already failed (alongside Wade in Cleveland). Another super friend has become lost for now in the ether (Carmelo Anthony). Another (Chris Paul) couldn’t wait and instead fell into the arms of James Harden.
It all would have been far easier in the moment and going forward if Paul George made the Lakers his July free-agency choice, or if a trade could have been consummated for Kawhi Leonard or Jimmy Butler.
If LeBron is looking to recreate 2010 with the
Heat, he well could find that not one, not two, certainly not three elites are on the way this time.
Not because of who he is or isn’t.
Not because of how he is perceived as a teammate.
But rather because super teams aren’t piecemeal, or at least haven’t been to this point.
iwinderman@ sunsentinel.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ ira.winderman
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