LeBron James has won one NBA championship during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers and is confident he can win another. James recently sat down for an interview with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, where he was asked if he thinks he can win another championship with the Lakers before he retires.
“Of course,” James said.
McMenamin then asked what gives James that confidence and he had quite the simple response.
“‘Cause we’ve done it before,” James stated. “We still have two guys who commit every single day, myself and (Anthony Davis). We commit to excellence and commit to winning. We’re not that far off. We were one year removed from the Western Conference Finals.
“This past year didn’t go as well as we would like, but we’re not that far off,” James continued. “And there’s so many teams in the league, so many great teams in the league, in the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference, but we don’t see that we’re that far off anyone anyways.”
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You have to have that belief if you’re LeBron, but I am not confident he is going to be able to win another title with the Lakers, as things stand. Yes, James and Davis have won a title together, but that was back in 2020. They’re not as good as they were back then and neither is their supporting cast.
It’s why the Lakers finished with a 47-35 record last season and were eliminated in five games by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. Unless the front office can add a quality player or two to their ranks, it’s hard to see them getting back on top. They failed to do that this offseason, losing out on the likes of Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan, and Jonas Valanciunas.
LeBron was reportedly willing to take a $16 million pay cut on his new deal if the Lakers were able to get in an impact player, but they weren’t able to. That meant a significant discount was out of the question, but the 39-year-old did take a pay cut of close to $3 million, to ensure the Lakers were below the second apron.
LeBron signed a two-year, $101.3 deal which gave the Lakers some more flexibility moving forward. The 20-time All-Star, who averaged 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game last season, would be hoping that the front office can make some moves with it but it remains to be seen if they will.
LeBron James Speaks On JJ Redick Becoming The Lakers’ New Head Coach
There is also a big question mark when it comes to the Lakers next season and it’s their new head coach JJ Redick. He has never coached even at the high school level, but James is excited to work with Redick on the Lakers.
“I’m super excited to work with JJ and looking forward to the fall. We’re coming in with a new system. We have to learn the system and see what Coach Redick and the rest of the coaching staff wants us to do. My only mindset is to come back and be ready to work, no matter who is there.”
This very much seems to be a boom or bust hire and if he ends up flopping, James is going to be the one receiving a lot of criticism. While all parties involved have claimed that LeBron played no part in Redick getting the job, no one’s buying that, as they co-hosted the Mind the Game podcast. There is going to be a lot of pressure from the outside on Redick and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles it.
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