LeBron James Finally Spoke Publicly About The ‘Dream Come True’ Of Playing For The Lakers

For the past four weeks, LeBron James has been seen but not heard after joining the Los Angeles Lakers. We’ve known that his first scheduled public appearance wouldn’t be until this week at the opening of his I Promise school in Akron, Ohio, but there was hope that he might pop up and speak about his free agency decision before then.

Instead, we’ve had false alarms in the form of a pizza party that he skipped to hang out in his pool, a Vegas Summer League appearance, and he’s been very visible on the grassroots hoops circuit watching his son Bronny in tournaments. Through all of that, he’s kept quiet about his decision to join the Lakers, but on Sunday his silence was finally broken.

Ahead of Monday’s grand opening of the I Promise school, James released a video on his Uninterrupted platform that explained exactly how excited he was about what he believes will be one of the crowning achievements of his life to open up a school. After explaining what it means to him to be able to give back to the community that made him who he is and to help kids that he knows exactly the struggles their going through on a day-to-day existence, James spoke about the bittersweet timing of it all. It was then that LeBron offered his first comments about his move to L.A. and why joining the Lakers was a “dream come true” for him.

“It’s kind of bittersweet timing, because on this hand I have a brand new school that’s opening and I want to be there on a day-to-day basis, ten toes down for these kids, but on the other hand I’m moving. I’m moving to Los Angeles. This is kind of like a dream come true for me. Growing up I was a Cowboys fan, a Bulls fan, a Yankees fan, and I’ve always felt like that was one of the historic franchises. And you look at the Lakers, being able to play for an historic franchise with so much history and being able to partner with Magic Johnson, someone I looked up to when I was younger. I wanted to make no-look passes like Magic, wanted get on the break and be Showtime like Magic. And for it all to come to fruition at this point, I think timing is everything. For me to be in this position now, my excitement to be a Laker. I’m happy to be a part of it because I believe the Lakers is a historical franchise, we all know that, but it’s a championship franchise and that’s what we’re trying to get back to. And I’m happy to be part of the culture and be a part of us getting back to that point.”

LeBron’s Yankees and Cowboys fandom was a point of controversy when he was a younger player — particularly inside Cleveland — but it’s not surprising to hear him explaining how that shaped his desire to play for one of the league’s truly historic franchises. Much was made about James wanting to play in Los Angeles and what exactly were the reasons he wanted to be there, especially considering they won’t be a contender immediately.

However, James clearly sees an opportunity to build not only the next chapter of his career in L.A., but to be the defining character in the Lakers’ next chapter as a championship franchise. Ironically, the Lakers struggling in recent years might’ve been exactly what LeBron needed to go to L.A. Had the Lakers already been great, his impact would’ve been lessened by joining them, but with the Lakers falling out of playoff contention in recent years, he has a chance to be the one that brings the Lakers back to prominence. That idea seems to really excite LeBron, which is why he took the four-year deal (and because it keeps him in L.A. for most all of Bronny’s high school career).

As he says, timing is everything, and the table is set perfectly for him to be able to make his own imprint on the Lakers storied history.