The Los Angeles Lakers are in serious danger of missing the playoffs, and one NBA executive thinks LeBron James should shoulder some of the blame.
The Lakers are coming off a 128-115 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, who played the game without star player Anthony Davis. That’s the shame Davis who demanded a trade before the deadline, was interested in the Lakers, and shares James’s agent, Rich Paul.
One NBA executive believes that the links between Davis and the Lakers — and James’s open embrace of a player not on his team — seriously hindered the Lakers’ team chemistry.
“He killed the [Lakers’] chemistry,” one NBA executive said, via Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. “He shouldn’t have been so public about it. Even during the All-Star draft, he laughed about [wanting Davis to be his teammate].”
Davis’s public trade demand and the Lakers’ open interest, egged on by president Magic Johnson, clearly destabilized the team. James, however, has openly discussed how much he’d like to play with Davis, much to the fury of some other executives. Combined with the fact that he’s essentially the only untouchable on the Lakers’ roster, it probably didn’t help matters.
