The Los Angeles Lakers long have a taste for acquiring star talent and challenging for championships, but debate continues to swirl as to whether the 17-time NBA champions are anywhere near contending for the title in the coming years.
The Lakers have won the championship just once since 2010, and that was in a shortened, COVID-impacted season in 2019/20. Even with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the roster, there are doubts over rookie head coach J.J. Redick and the franchise’s ability to draft/develop young talent — with LeBron’s son, Bronny, being used as a test case following his rollercoaster Summer League campaign last month.
A far cry from the 2000s dynasty
Count comedian and Lakers fan Aries Spears as one of those skeptics as to LA’s direction. In an interview with VladTV, Spears decried the Lakers’ philosophy and how it led them to drafting Bronny with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft — and subsequently handing the 19-year-old a four-year contract worth nearly $8 million.
“We went from Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaq, Kareem, Kobe, Worthy, to now Bronny James, to the nepotism,” Spears said.
“Come on, man. The Lakers are a joke.”
While Redick and general manager Rob Pelinka have touted Bronny’s defensive potential and their plan to develop him into a more well-rounded player, fans and analysts around the league think Bronny arriving in LA serves merely to placate LeBron — and it is the latest questionable decision that the franchise has made in recent years.
Spears ripped the Lakers for signing “geezers” like Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, and Russell Westbrook — all future Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, but all players whose best days were behind them when they wore the famous purple and gold.
“It just feels like during the LeBron era, so many bad decisions have been made,” Spears said.
With Bronny already reportedly prompting some hurt feelings in Summer League, the hill he has to climb to silence his doubters continues to get steeper — all before he has played an official minute in the NBA. And for an iconic franchise that has only two titles (plus an NBA Cup) in the past 15 years, the demand to be smarter and better than the opposiition is unceasing.
