“They’re wasting LeBron’s 20th year” Chris Broussard believes how the entire narrative around LeBron James is wrongly framed
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Chris Broussard and LeBron James
LeBron James has entered the 20th season of his career and is going to be 38-years-old this December 30th. Despite the “Father Time” waiting in his hallway for years, James has kept it at bay, for sure better than anyone at this age.
As much credit can be given to James, it feels less when we start to assess his career achievements over the year, but if anything LeBron has done better than anybody in the league’s history; he has disciplined himself.
According to Chris Broussard, the narrative flying around in the NBA that the Lakers are wasting LeBron James’ 20th year in the league is perhaps not right as it might appear. According to Chris, everything in the media surrounding the Lakers and perhaps the league has become about LeBron James and that becomes a problem if you are LeBron’s teammate.
Speaking on “The Odd Couple” podcast on Fox Sports Broussard said, “They are wasting LeBron’s 20th year, they gotta get LeBron more help, they gotta get him another ring, it becomes all about LeBron.”
On the other hand, his co-host, Rob Parker pointed to something that has been previously discussed in the media and by the players. Parker said when LeBron is on the team it becomes all about him and that can become degrading to other players on the team. Parker alluded to the idea that players might think that everything, “It revolves around him []LeBron James] and…we really don’t matter.“
Such kind of media attention has been given to LeBron since his day 1 in the league and all his teammates have previously struggled with that. Perhaps, that is the baggage of playing around a generational talent like James.
Broussard said that was fine when he was younger and he could carry a team and now if the narrative is like that they aren’t gonna be the best team they can be If that’s the atmosphere around them.
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Challenge for Darvin Ham and the Lakers when LeBron James returns
To be LeBron James’ teammate not only takes skills but also the guts to handle the paramount pressure and media gaze on the daily basis. As James is perhaps set to return to the team lineup on Friday against San Antonio Spurs the media focus is again going to shift to James.
According to Broussard, because of these media narratives “that can be deflating to other players.” Broussard also brought up the fact that other players are performing better when LeBron is not around.
But if this is not it for his teammates, as LeBron James gets nearer to Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s scoring record the media noise and the narrative is going to get more hyped and bigger. Laker players coping with the noise is perhaps a bigger responsibility than one can fathom.
Safe to say, such a noise can cause the team player to lose focus when the media hype gets bigger. Whether or not the Lakers like it the media is going to get refocused around LeBron and it is the job of Head Coach, Ham to find a way to get these players to keep involved and focused in the game.
In presence of two best passers in basketball history, the lack of team production says a lot about the team’s construction. LeBron is a pass-first player and if the players can remain focused and involved, the production from the team can exponentially increase.
That being said, Davis has to take charge of the offense and continue to play the same game. Others like Austin Reaves and Lonnie Walker IV have to keep playing at the level they have played over the last few games.
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Nandjee Ranjan
(488 Articles Published)