The Lakers are the NBA’s sideshow (Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe)

The 2024-25 NBA season is here. We take our annual trip too close to the sun, daring you to stand the swelter of these views. This is Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe.

When Los Angeles Lakers teammates LeBron and Bronny James became the first father-son duo in NBA history, ESPN posted side-by-side photos to social media of the two of them from both 2004 and 2024.

The caption read, “Time flies.”

News flash: It does not. And that is actually what makes this achievement so remarkable.

Facebook was a fledgling company when Bronny was born in October 2004. YouTube did not exist. The iPhone would not be invented for another three years. Instagram debuted in 2010. This was forever ago.

But every moment between them is now another opportunity to remind us that, yes, LeBron and Bronny are teammates. Did you hear about the time LeBron drove baseline on his son? Or the time Bronny made a 3-pointer over his dad? Sure you did, because both became headlines the moment we learned of each.

If you are already tired of keeping up with the Jameses, imagine how the Lakers feel. Do not get me wrong: It will be extremely cool to see LeBron and Bronny share a court for the first time in the regular season. It will be fun to see a father’s first assist to his son. That novelty is fleeting — for us, not them.

But the Lakers will be asked in every city about every development between father and son, good or bad. And it will become a burden if it is not already. The feel-good story will not feel so good when, for example, they are asked about Bronny’s movement to and from the G League as the losses mount under first-year head coach JJ Redick. Or when LeBron has to rest a sore left ankle. Or when D’Angelo Russell is benched.

That is right: The Lakers are a sideshow. They have no chance to win a championship, and yet they will be the sport’s biggest story — even bigger than last season, when they lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Remember, LeBron turns 40 years old in December. He gets to play with his son because, by season’s end, he will likely have played more minutes in the NBA than anyone ever has. He is still really good, a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/the-lakers-are-the-nbas-sideshow-hot-takes-we-might-actually-believe-133131206.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-22 13:31:00

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