Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Lose Big in Cleveland, Luka Dončić Twists Ankle, LeBron Gets Reflective

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

This one got away from the Lakers in a hurry. After a decent first quarter against the Cavs in Cleveland, the Lakers lost control of the game near the end of the first half, and were completely blown ...out in the third quarter. LeBron James, who got a little teary watching a tribute video played for him before the game, finished with more turnovers (six) than assists (five). Luka Dončić (29 points, 12-20 shooting) did his level best to keep the Lakers in it, but turned his ankle falling off the court (there's a stepdown in Cleveland between the end of the court and the first row of seats) and was clearly impacted by the pain for the rest of the game. Fortunately, he was able to sit early, given how big the Lakers were down. After Luka, nobody scored more than 11 points. Oof. And it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because any hold the Lakers had on the game defensively disappeared in a hurry. Particularly in the third, the Lakers couldn't keep Cleveland off the three point line, or away from the rim. Bad combo. Probably the biggest story was a very nostalgic, reflective LeBron speaking with the media after the game. You can tell he knows time is short... he just hasn't figured out HOW short.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers get thumped in Cleveland.  SEGMENT 2: Luka banged up, Austin still out.  SEGMENT 3: LeBron gets reflective.  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONGametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 LeBron James gets reflective about his career after the game in Cleveland, but we're really no closer to understanding what the future holds. That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every day. Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends and even on holidays,
Starting point is 00:00:34 Andy, no matter how or where you get your podcasts, You might be an Apple guy. You could be a Spotify guy. You could be one of the 37,000-plus subscribers to the Lockdown Lakers YouTube channel. No matter how you're doing it, you're part of making the Lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe. I'm Brian Komeneski with Andy Komenetsky, nearly 20 years covering the Lakers with ESPN, with the Athletic, with the L.A. Times, 20 years, which is still not as long as LeBron James has been playing.
Starting point is 00:01:02 He was extremely reflective in his return to. to Cleveland, which we will get to in a moment. He spoke a lot about his career, but didn't necessarily bring a lot of clarity in terms of what the future holds for him or the Lakers. So we'll touch on that in a moment. But do you want to mention the game itself, and it was an ugly one for the Lakers in a lot of different ways. 129 to 99 is the final score.
Starting point is 00:01:31 LeBron himself played poorly. It was not a good game. LeBron. Yeah. I mean, to be just to set the stage, LeBron had a lot of company in this game among teammates. It's not like everyone else brought it, and LeBron was the one guy who just didn't have his head in the game.
Starting point is 00:01:52 I do think, and we'll talk about it, I think this was emotionally a difficult game for LeBron to play in ways that I think he did not expect for it to be this way. But it was a poor game. game for LeBron. It was a poor game for a lot of guys. It was on pretty much all facets, just a lousy, lousy night for the Lakers. 11 points on 3 of 10 shooting for LeBron. He had more turnovers, six than assists. Five, Luca Donchich, who did his level best to keep the Lakers in this game,
Starting point is 00:02:28 finished with 29 points, 12 of 20 from the floor. But he hurt his ankle, Andy, because he fell off the court. And that might sound strange, but at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, there's a step down from the floor to like the ground where the people sit. This is very unusual in NBA circles. I think it's the only
Starting point is 00:02:48 arena that has that. Players get hurt on it. You know, probably seems like once a year. They complain about it all the time. And yet here we are. So Luca played through the pain, but he went to the locker room, came back. played through the pain.
Starting point is 00:03:04 We'll see, though, whether or not he is able to play. It would be Friday in Washington. So that is something to watch. And Austin Reeves, Andy, didn't play. I know we've been all kind of waiting for that debut. It's going to have to come either in Washington, Brooklyn, or New York. Yeah. Hopefully, Luca is able to play the fact that he was able to get back into this game
Starting point is 00:03:29 and actually play reasonably well. Well, he said after, I mean, like reasonably well in the sense of dealing with that sort of pain. He played well. I just mean he said afterwards, it bothered him. Like he could feel it. It was something that he had to play through. There were times where you wondered, is he fighting something as he's dealing with this? But, you know, hopefully he will be able to suit up.
Starting point is 00:03:55 Again, Luca was, I would say the bright spot of this game other than maybe Gabe Vindon. Vincent showing proof of life. I don't mean, yeah, but it always makes me sad, Andy. Gabe Vincent had hit four or six shots from the floor, three of his five, three pointers. He had an assist. He had three rebounds. He had 11 points.
Starting point is 00:04:16 It always makes me sort of sad when the Lakers waste this, you know, sort of the Gabe Vincent performance where they get something out of him and you still lose by 30 because they don't come around very often. Well, we'll just make sure next April when it happens that everyone's on their P's and Q's. And they make sure. The guy who had the second most talked about game of anyone really was Brony in his eight minutes of garbage time,
Starting point is 00:04:42 which by the way gives you an idea of what this game looks like. Because eight minutes is a lot of garbage time. Brony had the crowd going nuts. He hit all three of his shots. He had a breakaway dunk. He had two, three-pointers. He had steel overall. You know, it was a, it was of all the people who, Cleveland fans, of all the James's that the fans got to watch,
Starting point is 00:05:06 Brony had a better night. I mean, look, it was a homecoming for Brony too, and I'm not being facetious or sarcastic. Like the Cavaliers actually, they put up a photo like a welcome back Brony. And it was, I believe, Brony as a kid, like acknowledging Brony practically grew up in this arena. You know, it's similar concept to you and I when we were first covering this team. We used to see Natalia and Gigi outside the locker room after games. And like they were little, little kids. You know, Chris Paul, you know, like little Chris.
Starting point is 00:05:47 And that era of the Clippers was a running joke in NBA circles that the locker room basically doubled his daycare. Because all the kids would be in there. and some of these are kids that, you know, you now see as adults or maybe playing college basketball themselves, things like that. But Brawny definitely had the homecoming that he hoped for. LeBron did not. The Lakers did not.
Starting point is 00:06:11 I talked about how it was a failure on all facets. They gave up by 10. It's worth noting. They were up by 10 early. Like for a little while, it looked like, okay, this might be another one of these games. but they lost control the game before halftime, and then by the third quarter, who.
Starting point is 00:06:32 Yeah, I mean, they gave up 14 offensive rebounds in this game, and offensive rebounds were the thing that was really keeping Cleveland in the game, despite the Lakers out playing him early. They gave up 17 second chance points off those 14 offensive rebounds. They gave up 60 points in the paint. They turned the ball over 16 times. Cleveland turned it into 23 points. And Cleveland ended up shooting from behind the arc, 39%, which is good, but not necessarily
Starting point is 00:07:02 incredible until you take into account in the first quarter, Cleveland shot 27% rounding up, which really gives you an indication that after the first quarter in particular in the second half, they were just scorching from behind the arc. So again, just in every facet imaginable, the Lakers were just. completely outplayed and outclassed. You know, it's self-evident when you lose by 30, but just laying down the details of how they lost this game, more or less all of them.
Starting point is 00:07:37 They, uh, I mean, it was funny. JJ was clearly unhappy after the game. Um, and I, I get why. Blakers didn't, didn't play. They just, they, they, they did okay at the beginning. But like, once Cleveland, required them to kind of kick it into another gear and raise their level a little bit, there wasn't anything there.
Starting point is 00:08:03 And so, you know, the studio guys on Spectrum Sportsnet, the Lakers flagship station, they kind of talked about it. You know, they just, they did not have any energy. And this is just one of those games, too, where the, you know, once Cleveland was, the Lakers' coverages on the three point line were bad. This wasn't a matter of like Cleveland just dropping a bunch of bombs in while the Lakers had a hand in the face and on. And then they also couldn't keep them away from the rim either. So none of that worked really well.
Starting point is 00:08:39 But I was really struck in this game, Andy, on Wednesday, just the difference in athleticism. This is another night where it was just hyper obvious. And I'm not just talking about like, you know, Donovan Mitchell or Jared Allen, you know, hoppy guys that are that are pretty well known. own, you know, Jalen Tyson's athleticism, Naquan Tomlin, you know, guys you're not even necessarily familiar with. Tyson's going to be in the most improved player conversation. Tyson has been really good. Awesome.
Starting point is 00:09:09 He's been really good for them. You know, I tried to acquire him in my fantasy league Keeper League, and I couldn't do it. He's been, you know, the guy wouldn't give him up. But he's been great. But like those young, bouncy young players, when you see three or four of them, them on another roster. It's just like, ooh. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:29 I kind of wish I had that. And JJ talked afterwards, you know, that he didn't think he said that the team got out played. He also said he thinks he got out coached. He specifically cited the third quarter. He said, I should have started subbing in guys earlier when we clearly got off to, you know, off to a really bad start. I should have been trying different things earlier.
Starting point is 00:09:53 He also acknowledged to. And I don't think he meant that. This is an excuse. I think he really was talking about just the context of the game. Luca going out in the first quarter messed with the rotations over the course of the first half, which got the team out of rhythm some. Again, I don't think JJ meant it as an excuse. These guys are pros.
Starting point is 00:10:13 You're supposed to be able to adjust to a rotation changing. He was just allowing more context. But nobody, and to JJ's point himself, put their best foot forward. again, other than Luca had a good game and you could say in his own right, Gabe Vincent had a good game. That's pretty much it.
Starting point is 00:10:32 Yep. But I mean, I think the big headlines for the Lakers other than waiting to see what happens to Luca, which will, theoretically,
Starting point is 00:10:42 we'll get hopefully a little bit of an update on Thursday into Friday, obviously, certainly before Friday's game in Washington. The big talk from this game was in fact LeBron and some very reflective comments that he had after the game.
Starting point is 00:11:01 We'll dive into it next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by TurboTax. Tax season doesn't have to take over your life. This year, TurboTax is making it easier to just hand things off and then move on with your day. With TurboTax full service, you can have your taxes done for you by a trusted local expert, start to finish without the stress or the guesswork. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out, forms. You can just meet with a local TurboTax, TurboTax expert
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Starting point is 00:11:49 knowing an expert is handling it. Like, just respectfully, all y'all people watching this, you're not experts. You don't know what you're doing. Hand it over to TurboTax. For a limited time, you can have your taxes done, unless you're an accountant, I guess, but still, even then, go to TurboTax. You can have your taxes done by a local turbotax expert for just $150, all in. And if a TurboTax expert didn't file for you by last
Starting point is 00:12:13 year, just filed by February 28th. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit turbotax.com slash local to book your appointment today. Um, LeBron obviously, you know, it's, it's Cleveland. So he's going to have a, an extended time speaking to the media. He's going to be asked a lot about career stuff and this and that because as he made it clear, he doesn't know if he's going to play in Cleveland again. And I, I, I realized. Andy, some people look at this and say,
Starting point is 00:13:01 oh, it's just theater and this and that. I think he doesn't know. He's 41 years old, and I think the idea that he knows for sure that he's going to be back in that building as a player. No, he doesn't. Let's take it back even further,
Starting point is 00:13:18 because before we even start getting into what LeBron said after the game and our thoughts on it, our reaction, things like that, we've got to actually start with the game itself and in the game, Because in the first break in the action, this happened actually when Luca was going to the locker room, the Cavaliers played a tribute video for LeBron.
Starting point is 00:13:41 It included the words, Welcome Home. It included a lot of really big highlights from LeBron's career before the game. I guess Cleveland, they do some type of thing where a cavalier great or somebody who played for the team, someone Cleveland specific yada yada, does something with like the Cavalier sword, similar to what USC does,
Starting point is 00:14:03 I think with, you know, the sword in their games, Trojans. And Richard Jefferson was that guy. Richard Jefferson, one of LeBron's teammates. They won together in 2016. Still really good friends. Yeah, they're still very good friends. And the tribute video very visibly affected LeBron.
Starting point is 00:14:23 Like he actually was covering his face during this because he was crying. Like he was wiping his eyes on the bench. He was wiping his eyes on the court. Like this was a, not just a real reaction. It was a reaction that I think very clearly, LeBron was not expecting. Like he was not, I think, expecting to feel this way during the game.
Starting point is 00:14:46 They've done other tribute videos. He knows it's going to be happening. But you know what? But he said he doesn't, the reason he was asked about like why this one, like it's like the eighth tribute video you've gotten. And what he said was, I was much more present and paying attention to this
Starting point is 00:15:01 than I typically am. And I think that in and of itself surprised him. I think everything about this in not the idea that there would be a video. Again, this is the eighth one since he's been a Laker, but the idea that he would react to this, I don't think LeBron was completely prepared for it. I think it's very easy and likely accurate to speculate that this video among other things,
Starting point is 00:15:30 and the reaction to it, the emotions, threw LeBron off his game. I imagine it went hand-to-hand. I actually tweeted out at Cam Brothers. If this was Cleveland proactively trying to recruit LeBron as a free agent this summer well-played,
Starting point is 00:15:47 if this was in the short run, Cleveland trying to throw LeBron off so they could win this game well-played. And, you know, Clay Thompson, his first trip back to Golden State as a member of the Mavericks. They played that tribute video that Clay was bawling during and he admitted. It was hard for him to function during that game. It was difficult.
Starting point is 00:16:12 So just this was an emotional game for LeBron in ways that I do not think he really was completely prepared for expecting, anticipating any of it. And it showed. Right. And that gets to, I think, you know, the stuff after the game, you know, he, he was, you know, really kind of moved by the idea that his mom was there watching his, him, her son and her grandson. You know, play at the same time, which is bananas. As a side note. But like that the fact that he was present, I know people are deeply cynical of everything that LeBron does. And there's good cause for that.
Starting point is 00:17:01 He was extremely calculated as people are saying in the chat, you know, as we do this live on YouTube and all these other things. I get all that. But, you know, the fact that he was, I think, genuinely reflective in these moments and taking the time to be present. and all these other things. Like, I think if I had to put money on it right now,
Starting point is 00:17:25 I would put money on him playing one more season. But it's not a lock. He's 41 years old. And I think from a Lakers perspective, what obviously makes this, you know, relevant is just this notion of like both what he's going to do, what he wants to do,
Starting point is 00:17:47 where he could do it, and how good he's going to be. because I think what we're seeing, LeBron said he's like taking the argument with Father Time personally, he said that after the game, the fight with Father Time. But games like this are going to happen just more frequently. He's put up really good numbers over the last month. He's been very good. But the floor for what LeBron is on some nights is just lower than it used to be.
Starting point is 00:18:19 you are going to get 11, what do you have, 11 and 5 with six turnovers in this game, three or 10 from the floor? Like you're going to get games like this going forward. So like, does he, is he comfortable with that? You know, because there'll be probably more of them when you turn 42 than they were when you're 41. What would the Lakers be willing to pay for that? What is he willing to accept for it, whether it's from the Lakers or someone else? I just think there's a lot of choices that go into them.
Starting point is 00:18:49 this, that the people, whether you like LeBron or not, who think this is all just theater, are not fully considering. Well, I mean, look, for what it is worth to our audience, we have expressed the times where we think it is appropriate to view something LeBron says or does, Rich Paul says or does, with cynicism. Like, we have not been afraid to call out those moments as we see them. So if nothing else, if we are saying we think, because I agree with Brian, this is sincere. This is LeBron being introspective.
Starting point is 00:19:29 This is LeBron genuinely not knowing because what he's going through right now is unknowable on a bunch of different fronts. It's unknowable because there's no template to compare it to. You can't actually, you can't truly plan for this in advance. like it's impossible to do because there's no roadmap. I don't care how much care LeBron takes of his body, all of that stuff. You cannot know at his age with this type of mileage. What exactly is going to happen in a week,
Starting point is 00:20:04 much less three months from now, six months from now a year or change from now. 100%. We've always said, you know, the last few years after the Lakers have been eliminated from the playoffs and LeBron has expressed some uncertainty about whether or not he'll keep playing. There's always been that reaction. Oh, LeBron's trying to change the narrative.
Starting point is 00:20:26 People aren't going to talk about the Lakers being eliminated. They're going to talk about LeBron as if anybody will ever ignore anything involving the Lakers. But we've always said, we believe him, that he's actually not sure about what to do because it takes a lot to keep doing this. his age. One of the things I've said a lot is LeBron's still playing at an amazing level for this age, this mileage, all of that stuff. And there are times like LeBron will have a quarter or a half where it's like,
Starting point is 00:20:59 goddamn, man, he looks pretty close to Prime LeBron. But the difference is, and this has been going on for a few years, he does not make it look easy anymore. Like it does not look easy for LeBron. It looks like work for LeBron, because it is work for LeBron, whereas in his 30s, like the periods that were being celebrated in this tribute video by the Cavaliers, LeBron would wreck shop and at times barely look like he was sweating. Like that's how much better he was than anybody else. Forget in the league. Like 99.9% of the people who ever played this game, it ain't like that anymore, which means, there's other factors,
Starting point is 00:21:42 too, that are unknowns that I think LeBron is. I would. I'd say 100%, but well, there's one other factor here that is when people say, oh, he does this every year. It's the same theater. It's he's distracting from a bad game. There's an aspect of this conversation that is genuinely different and has never been the case in any of these moments where you would even consider what's next for LeBron. And we will explain what that thing is next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Rocket Money. Ever feel like your money just disappears every month?
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Starting point is 00:23:11 That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on rocketmoney.com slash locked on. A quick reminder about the Every Day or Club, the NBA Trade Trade deadline, trade deadline. It's basically here. We want to give you a free month now of our new Everydayer Club to help you get ready. If you need a group chat, keep up with chaos. You can join Hours every, every day or club member gets you every, every, every, every day or club member. Don't ever do that again.
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Starting point is 00:24:07 Andy and I'll be in there. You'll get to hear and see the voices from our other shows as well. Plus get ad-free versions of this show if you sign up by the trade deadline on February 5th. And you can use the code deadline. Get your first month free. Tap the link in the show notes to the show notes to. learn more. We were talking about this before,
Starting point is 00:24:27 uh, before, you know, while we're texting back and forth, figure out what we want to talk about. It showed us just happened. There's preparation. What makes this different is that
Starting point is 00:24:39 LeBron doesn't have a contract next year. Like he, you can say like, oh, I don't know if I want to play. I'm not going to do this or that or whatever. But A, you know,
Starting point is 00:24:51 you're coming off seasons where you feel. finished, you know, top in MVP voting, you're 37, you're 36, 37. You're obviously still one of the best players in the league. Okay. But now you're 41. And even if you think you're inclined to keep playing, you don't know where and you don't know for whom. And you don't really know the demand because in other years where LeBron was a free agent
Starting point is 00:25:20 or controlled his own destiny. Every team of the league would give him a max deal if it meant coming. Like, that's just what you did. He used LeBron James. That's not true anymore. There aren't going to be teams that can pay him $50 million or $40 million to be willing to do it. So there's just a tremendous amount of uncertainty around LeBron's future,
Starting point is 00:25:44 not just around age, but around contract and team that we're not used to. He's not used to it. It's the first time in LeBron's. entire career where a team has discovered the exit ramp from him before he's discovered the exit ramp from them. And that doesn't mean necessarily that LeBron won't be on the Lakers next year, though said a lot over the course of this season. I'm increasingly convinced it is LeBron's last season with the Lakers because it feels to me like the relationship has run its course and both sides are over each other. But as I've also said, both sides may come to realize,
Starting point is 00:26:22 they don't have a better option than each other. But regardless, the Lakers have an off-ramp. His name is Luca Donchich. It's the Lucca Dantzich Expressway, Lucca Dantzich Boulevard. And they can exit on Lucidantzich Boulevard. LeBron may follow them, but either way, he does not have an exit ramp. And that has never happened in LeBron's entire career. So he truly can't know what he's going to do next.
Starting point is 00:26:51 Like even, for example, Dave McMamond wrote a really good piece for ESPN just chronicling, you know, Dave in addition to covering the Lakers now covered LeBron during the second Cleveland stint. Like he knows that year. He's basically been on the LeBron beat for 15 years. He knows that era really as well as anybody. And this one of the things in the piece that it was towards the end and it obviously caught a lot of people's attention because the NBA is a rumors. driven league, but that the cavaliers would, you know, welcome LeBron back with open arms this offseason. And that may be true as an overarching concept, but the cavaliers with their own salary structure and CBA issues and the fact that LeBron is, he'll be 42 then, he'll be in season
Starting point is 00:27:48 24, you can't, you can't. And almost certainly will only be there for, you know, probably a year. Right. Two at the very most. But even, okay. But even then, like you start getting, you start getting into the questions of, for example, one of my big sticking points that I talked about a lot heading into this offseason and frankly took a lot of crap from a lot of our audience, but I believe I was right.
Starting point is 00:28:15 And I think a lot of this season has demonstrated why I was right. I said the Lakers cannot give LeBron another one plus one at this sort of money. It would be malpractice because you cannot build the roster that you will need this offseason. If you are paying LeBron that type of money, or frankly, you can't even plan with 50-ish million dollars just as a question mark. You can't do that. When you said one or two years, I don't know if Cleveland would do like a one plus one, that sort of thing. frankly think they would be insane to do that. But regardless, like even at the, my point in bringing this up is even if the cavaliers
Starting point is 00:28:54 are internally kind of excited at the idea of LeBron closing the loop of his career with them, it's a complicated proposition even if they're excited. So even that team that gets mentioned with LeBron more than any other than the Lakers, they have no idea how this would work out. Nobody knows. And I bring up the question of, you know, the time that he might play because if you are a team like Cleveland, let's say LeBron, it's a different deal. If he'll say, give me a mid-level, I want to take a mid-level whatever team I want to play on a year, two max, and I'm done. You don't have to give me 30 million or 35 million or whatever.
Starting point is 00:29:37 Give me six. You know, I'm rich. I, like, that's a different story. But if he wants, you know, but otherwise, like, you're in a situation where. do we sacrifice players now that we want to have around maybe for a couple years or not sign certain guys? It becomes very tricky to even, like you said, even if your team that conceptually likes the idea of having LeBron, depending on what the logistics are, and this is why I just, and LeBron's sensitive to that. This is why when people, oh, LeBron's going to force his way out, he's going to demand, no, he is not,
Starting point is 00:30:15 because there's no natural landing spot. And the last thing LeBron- Which Paul said that. Where's he going to go? Where's he going to go? There's no natural place for him to go. This is all, but the other thing that happened after this game that I was excited about because it's validated something I've been saying for a couple of years
Starting point is 00:30:34 is that what really has made this so hard between LeBron and the Lakers is that LeBron has been really good. and continuing to play way longer than anybody, including LeBron, expected. And he said as much, if you told me I'd still be playing in 2025, 26, at age 41 when I signed that original contract with the Lakers, if you made me say, you know, would you still be playing? He said, no, I wouldn't still be playing.
Starting point is 00:31:05 So he's been surprised by it. I think he's been surprised by it for a couple years. And I absolutely think the Lakers have been as well. They thought they were going to be done with the sort of LeBron experience three years ago, not in a malicious way, but just in a you don't expect a guy to keep playing like this until he's 41 years old.
Starting point is 00:31:26 And so that has created a level of uncertainty and complexity to this relationship between the Lakers and LeBron that has been beneficial because, like, hey, he's still really good, but it's hard to, like, what do we do? And the Lakers finally have reached a point, like you say, Andy, where they get to answer that question themselves, and they had to get there.
Starting point is 00:31:50 Well, the thing is, without the Luca trade, they would have never done it pro-actable. I know what they'd be doing. I can tell you what they would be doing. They would be giving LeBron contracts in perpetuity until he was 55 years old. That is what they, I said before, and I'll say it,
Starting point is 00:32:06 other than maybe, maybe because of the sale, the sale of the team, maybe would have offered a certain backstop for Jeannie, even without Luca being here, just the idea of somebody else you could put out there, Mark Walter, as the guy making that decision. But I still insist to this day. And the piece that Baxter Holmes wrote about the tension,
Starting point is 00:32:31 not just within the bus family, but that's existed for a while between the Lakers, Jeannie and LeBron Clutch, talked about LeBron, that Jeannie had been reluctant a few years ago. She wasn't wild, according to Baxter's reporting. She wasn't necessarily wild about giving LeBron another contract a few years ago, but was concerned about the PR hit.
Starting point is 00:32:56 I remain insistent to this day that had Mark Walter not been there as a backstop, even with Luca here, I think Jeannie would not have had the stomach not to give LeBron James one of the biggest stars. Forgetting NBA history, like North American global sports history. I don't think she would have had the stomach to tell him no. I don't. Yeah. It's, it's, it creates a different kind of dilemma now for Rob in the off season.
Starting point is 00:33:31 And, you know, the trade deadline, which is coming next week, correct? Yeah, it's February 5th. February 5th. I just can't remember when February 5th is. this there's this trade deadline which we'll get in much more detail is you know there are some extenuating circumstances that really have nothing to do with lebron but yonis it is uh and you know and just what the lakers can do at this deadline but you start getting into the summer and all this like you know the it's going to create a
Starting point is 00:34:09 different kind of pressure and a different kind of thing is it's not just okay we're just going to sign our guy and you know it's lebron and it's like you know you know you're you're no longer in that sort of trap so to speak um and uh i i i am i am curious to see how the lakers handle it we will try to bring you as many updates as we get on player health whether austin reeves is going to be able to suit up friday in washington and make his return, health updates on Luke at Donchich, whether or not he'll be able to play on Friday. Conflicting reports that Dalton Connect once out. Well, the one part that isn't conflicting is that the Lakers would like.
Starting point is 00:34:53 Well, we said that Dalton wants out. We didn't say that the Lakers haven't, that it's conflicted that they've made up their mind. Right. That Dalton Connect has asked for a trade. There is, like you say, conflicting reports about that. there are no conflicting reports the Lakers have tried. I just can't. You've seen evidence of one time.
Starting point is 00:35:15 You know, Dalton marching into Rob's office. Look, this isn't working. I demand you move me. He's like probably on the phone. Yes. With other GMs. Like, Dalton, hold on a second. Way ahead of you, buddy.
Starting point is 00:35:30 I got a list of calls that I'm working on here, man. Would you like to speak to the GM that I'm talking to? Right. Put it a good word for you. How do you feel about? Miami how do you feel about Indianapolis what do you think yeah somewhere you want to put you on speaker Dalton yeah um dumbest trade demand of all time if it exists the most well it's just the most unnecessary trade demand of all time um anyway we will we will talk about that though
Starting point is 00:35:57 for uh for our friday show as we get closer and closer to the deadline and we'll see everyone then

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