The Los Angeles Lakers have had more all-time greats play for them than any other franchise, and they’ve given basketball fans some of the most iconic teams of all time. The Lakers have one of the strongest brands in sports, and they’re the perfect team to call Hollywood home. The Lakers are synonymous with star power, but, unfortunately, star power is often messy. We’re seeing that once again after Luka Doncic signed his three-year, $165 million extension on Saturday.
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Luka has been one of the main characters of this NBA offseason, as fans have marveled at his new ripped look and made MVP projections about what he’ll be able to do in 2025-2026. Instead of examining what it means for the Lakers to lock in one of the game’s best players for at least three more seasons, though, people are weirdly fixating on who was and was not at his press conference.
Head coach JJ Redick and at least seven of Luka’s Lakers teammates, including new additions Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart, were in attendance to show support for his new deal. Conspicuously absent were LeBron and Bronny James, and that seems to be all anybody wants to talk about.
On his show yesterday, Dan Patrick blasted Bronny especially for not being there, saying, “You’re the last guy on the roster, you should be there. Show support.” It was revealed later that LeBron and Bronny were on vacation playing golf.
Danny Green, who played with LeBron on the 2020 title-winning Lakers team, thinks it wasn’t a big deal that LeBron and Bronny weren’t there.
On his Inside the Green Room podcast, Green had this to say: “Bron is on this golf kick right now … He might have had a commitment or appointment of being somewhere and playing 18 holes, and we didn’t know this press conference was coming up. So they probably had this booked already. Spending time with his son, it’s summertime, he’s earned that.”
Green was more open to LeBron being absent than his son, but he still didn’t kill Bronny for being on the links instead of with his other teammates.
“Now Bronny James, could be a debate of what he’s earned, and that’s why Dan Patrick spoke on it that he should have been there. And maybe so, but he’s spending time with his dad, I think they both are very much in their own right to have a day of golf together and not be criticized for not showing up to a press conference in the summertime.”
It wouldn’t be the Lakers if there wasn’t some drama attached to even an objectively good thing like securing a five-time First Team All-NBAer, but Green is right that this is much ado about nothing. LeBron reportedly FaceTimed Luka to congratulate him on the deal, and all of this will be forgotten if the Lakers make a run next year.
People have been quick to criticize the Lakers’ moves this offseason, particularly the signings of Ayton and Smart, but if they’d take off their Laker-hating goggles for a minute, they’d realize that the Lakers are in a better spot than they were last year.
The team basically had no center after trading Anthony Davis last year, and it cost them in the playoffs. Ayton may not be a star, but he’s a huge upgrade over what they had.
Losing Dorian Finney-Smith to the Rockets hurts, but adding Smart will soften that blow, even if his best years are behind him. If Luka is as motivated as he appears to be, and LeBron is really locked in on trying to get that fifth ring, the Lakers won’t be an easy out, even in a gauntlet of a Western Conference.
