Almost all of the chatter heading into free agency is about LeBron James joining the Los Angeles Lakers, with or without Kawhi Leonard already there.
James is in L.A. currently to make his decision, flying in on Saturday afternoon to some waiting for him at the small airport he arrived at after tracking his plane from Anguilla. If LeBron doesn’t go to L.A. as expected, most anticipate he’ll end up re-signing in Cleveland. That leaves the other possible LeBron suitors with very little in the way of hope, but until he’s signed they won’t stop trying to lure the best player in the world to their team.
After not opting in, teams like the Rockets and Celtics are almost officially out of the running for James, but the Sixers still have the cap space and situation to possibly make him think. Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons have spoken openly about recruiting LeBron, and on Saturday Embiid took a new approach with some negative recruiting against the Lakers on Twitter.
The Lakers are FOREVER gonna be Kobe’s and Magic’s team…. Process that
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) June 30, 2018
The message here is simple, LeBron will never be as beloved a figure in L.A. as Magic Johnson or Kobe Bryant, no matter what he does in his time with the Lakers. It’s an interesting tactic as James is someone that cares about his legacy, even if he doesn’t want to talk about it, and there are arguments to be made for and against going to L.A. as it pertains to how he’ll be remembered.
On one hand, going to L.A. does mean he enters into a place where there are already plenty of statues out front and beloved figures that in the four or so years he spends with the Lakers he likely won’t pass. That said, he can check off the “play for a legendary franchise” box, and if he is the one to drag the Lakers out of years of obscurity in terms of being a contender, Embiid might be surprised how quickly he’ll rise up Lakers fans’ personal rankings.
