Ever since Magic Johnson was running Showtime, the Lakers have been the biggest draw in the NBA. Stocked with Hall-of-Famers and multiple championships, those legendary teams deserved it. Then came the Shaq-Kobe teams, who became the first to a three-peat since Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Courtesy of these generations of players, the Lakers have earned so much goodwill that even when they aren’t the best team in the league, their big market and brand-name appeal has been enough to keep them as its poster child.
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The Lakers have gotten off to a great start this year. “Skinny Luka” Doncic has taken his new mantle of face of the franchise and run with it, putting up MVP numbers on a nightly basis. When he’s gotten some rest, Austin Reaves has emerged as someone who can still carry the team to victory.
The Lakers have been getting a lot of positive press, but last night’s destruction by the Thunder showed that the gulf between them and the defending champs is still wide. It also showed Gilbert Arenas that there’s a laughable imbalance between the coverage that smaller market teams and large market teams get, even though the best teams in the league almost all play in smaller cities.
Arenas talked about how incredible Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets have been, and how dominant the Thunder have looked as they set out to defend their title. Even so, he said, “They have not been in no m************’s top anything of topics. No one cares. They’re not flying under the radar, they aren’t on the radar. No one cares! No one cares what they’re doing.”
Agent Zero wasn’t done. “You got two MVP candidates doing what they do every year, no one cares. Austin Reaves scores 25, that’s better than Jokic’s triple-double. Who gets the headlines then?” he asked.
Arenas was outraged that Reaves has been in the news even more than Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander combined, simply because he plays for the Lakers. Jokic and SGA waged one of the best MVP battles in NBA history last year, and they’re arguably even better now. Reaves has continued to improve, but he’s not anywhere near their level.
Arenas outed the fact that he himself doesn’t closely pay attention to much more than the headlines when he didn’t seem to know who was on the Nuggets besides Jokic, but that doesn’t make him totally wrong in this case. The Lakers have always gotten more coverage than other teams and probably always will.
Still, the NBA is a league that runs on stars and they still drive viewership and interest. Jokic and SGA aren’t the best examples because they’re mostly all business and not interested in making headlines for anything other than their play. But there are plenty of guys in small markets, such as Anthony Edwards, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama, who are huge draws thanks to their big games and big personalities.
If Arenas is tired of the Lakers right now, he will probably be more frustrated when LeBron James gets back. The spotlight on him will be even brighter, especially now as people wonder how he’ll mesh with Luka in his twilight years.
