LeBron James was supposed to be a big boost for the Los Angeles Lakers, but so far the Lake Show’s first season with LeBron hasn’t really been what the team has hoped. It seems like Lakers president Magic Johnson has blamed Luke Walton for that poor start, and a meeting between the president and head coach allegedly involved cursing and shouting.
Walton isn’t talking about that meeting, and for good reason. But it also appears that the rest of the Lakers players aren’t worried about what was said between the two, even if it means that Walton’s seat is warming up. LeBron James was asked about the meeting between Walton and Johnson that was reported on Friday night, and according to ESPN he had a non-answer about the whole deal.
“It doesn’t bother me at all because I don’t pay attention to it, I don’t listen to it,” James said Saturday in advance of the Lakers’ game against the Portland Trail Blazers, when asked about the noise surrounding his team.
“It actually never even gets to me really, so it’s not a big deal for us,” James continued. “We need to figure out how we can string together some great games or even good games and bring our win total from where it is now. Because that’s the business we’re in. That’s the only thing we want to do. We want to be as good a team as we can be and win ballgames.”
James usually has a lot more power than he lets on in any of these situations, but he’s not saying much here. That’s probably for the best, as what is happening in L.A. is largely out of his hands. After all, he isn’t putting the roster together or coming up with the schemes that have made the team a mess defensively thus far.
Still, LeBron is optimistic that things will turn around for the Lakers despite a poor start.
“We’re still in the real early stages,” James said. “But we are much more of a unit today than we were two weeks ago. So I think we’ll be even better two weeks from now, and two weeks from then.
“I think every game, every road trip, every film session, every day that we’re together is going to continue to get us more and more familiar with one another. You just have to learn each other and know what to expect out of one another, how to challenge each other.”
LeBron’s regular season refrain is often about growth and the building of a team, so it makes sense that he goes back to that now that he’s on a Lakers team that is very much trying to figure out its identity other than being The Team That LeBron James Plays For. Perhaps Tyson Chandler will help them work toward that in due time. But right now, the main worry of Lakers fans is who will coach the team in a few weeks or months if the struggles on the court continue.
