Add Stephen A Smith to the long list of people who have wrongfully placed the blame on some of the Los Angeles Lakers’ poor decision-making on the shoulders of LeBron James.
On Tuesday’s episode of First Take, Smith stated that James “does not deserve it” when giving his opinion on whether James should be traded to the Golden State Warriors. His reasoning for this answer is that he thinks James should stay put after his role in wanting the Lakers to acquire Russell Westbrook back in 2021.
The trade that brought Westbrook to Los Angeles saw the Lakers give up Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell Pope, Montrezl Harrell, and the 22nd pick of the 2021 NBA Draft. This was a hefty haul for a player that was a disaster for the Lakers.
Smith claims that a lot of the mobility that the Lakers could have exercised by having some of those players traded in the Westbrook deal “derailed” the franchise.
Smith’s point about the Westbrook trade derailing the franchise is something that I am totally on board with. As he mentioned, the Lakers gave away some of their most prized assets that could help improve their team.
The trade for Westbrook was a head-scratching decision due to him being a player who never made any basketball sense before he ever put on a Lakers’ uniform. It seemed like a desperate move for a big name that was available.
Does LeBron James Deserve This Much Blame?
The disagreement with Smith comes with the level of blame that should be placed at LeBron James’ feet. From reports surrounding the trade, James wanted Westbrook. Does James give his opinions on things that he wants the organization to do? Of course, he does. But at the end of the day general manager Rob Pelinka pulled the trigger on the deal, which means he thought this was a good idea as well, to at least some degree.
The thing that tells us this is that there have been other instances in which James has wanted the Lakers front office to do something that they have decided against doing.
An example being when they decided to give a lowball offer to Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue when he was available in 2019 after the Lakers fired Luke Walton. James and Lue have a great relationship and the pair had a ton of success including the 2016 NBA Championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lakers ended up hiring Frank Vogel.
Also Read: NBA Contender ‘Dreaming’ Of Trading For LeBron James
Another example was when Kyrie Irving was available in the 2022-23 season after the Brooklyn Nets traded Kevin Durant. There were rumors linking Irving to the Lakers in the summer before the start of that season as well. The Los Angeles Lakers deciding to not get Irving was understandable at the time given that most of the league was down on Irving as an asset after a turbulent few years.
The Dallas Mavericks decided to take a risk and it has paid off for them as Irving has resurrected his career. There have been reports that James wanted the Lakers to trade for him and James’ public praise of Irving during that time bolsters those speculations.
These are a couple of instances in which James wanted something and the Lakers front office didn’t, so it didn’t happen.
However, when James wanted Westbrook on the team and it happened, it was all on James? Seems like a double standard don’t you think?