Udonis Haslem Defends LeBron James’ Championship Desire but Argues It’s Time for Luka Doncic “To Step In”

It’s no secret that despite being 40, LeBron isn’t just riding off into the sunset casually. He wants to win a championship and win it now with the Los Angeles Lakers. The only problem? Since trading in Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks this February, LeBron’s and the Lakers’ timelines are no longer aligned.

Bron is in win-now mode, but the Lakers, with a fresh 26-year-old superstar, are being patient and building the right team around Doncic. James’ impatience with the team has been well broadcast, and the media has turned on him, accusing him of not being able to handle the role of a second star.

Udonis Haslem, who won two titles with James in Miami, has come to his defense. On his OGs podcast, he spoke about understanding the desire to win another title, but said it may be time for James to take a back seat and let Doncic run the show.

James has been very vocal over the past few years about not wanting to be the primary guy anymore and wanting to hand the reins to someone else, and Doncic is the perfect guy for that. Haslem argued that neither party is in the wrong in this scenario: James has the right to want to be on a championship team, especially with this possibly being his last year in LA, and the Lakers have the right to build around their young superstar.

Haslem, while talking to Corey Kispert and co-host Mike Miller, said, “Ay man, listen. Two things can be true now. He can rightfully deserve an opportunity to play for a championship his last year… But another thing can be true. It is time for somebody else to step in and take over the realm of Laker Nation. You make a trade for a guy like Luka Doncic, you have to build around him.”

Haslem also, albeit controversially to many fans, said that James saved the Lakers franchise after Kobe’s retirement. He came in 2018, and within two years the Lakers won their first title since 2010 and their 17th overall. He believes James has earned the grace from the Lakers to demand a championship-calibre roster even as his time in LA winds down.

Haslem spent 20 years in the NBA, so he knows a little about how the business side of things works. He added that he wished the two parties had met in the middle, but went on to say that neither of them is in the wrong for how they’re seeing things.

“So that’s nothing against Bron, and that’s nothing against the decision that the Lakers is making,” he said. “I wish they had been able to meet in the middle and make both sides happy, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. As basketball players, you know this killer, we want to feel wanted, we want to feel appreciated.”

The Miami Heat legend went on to say that the Lakers might be doing themselves a disservice by not making Bron feel appreciated, and that although the two parties might part ways next summer, there are better ways to go about it than a messy public breakup.