LeBron James’ career as a Los Angeles Laker is extremely intriguing. He has honored the tradition of the storied franchise by bringing them an NBA championship. This would mean a lot to almost any other franchise, but success is the expectation in Los Angeles. And it doesn’t help that in 3 of the other seasons he has been a Laker, they haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs, missing them entirely twice.
This has led to quite a bit of debate about whether Bron counts as a Lakers great, and while his story is still being written, people have strong opinions about it. His stats and achievements with the Lakers were recently compared to Wilt Chamberlain’s, whose jersey is retired by the franchise. And fans debated whether James has done enough to earn the same honor himself.
“Retire #23 at CLE and LAL and #6 at MIA and LAL.”
“Nope, Wilt is a Laker, Bron is not.”
“One, #23. He brought relevance back to the Lakers after so many bad years. If he gets a title in #6 then we can talk about both at that time.”
“They should retire 23 because he didn’t do anything YET with 6 the only team that’s gonna retire 6 is Miami.”
“Lakers finna run outta jerseys man.”
“I say yes. Lebron got us # 17 which tied us for # 1! “
“No way man, LeBron isn’t a Lakers legend, sorry.”
“I say no because the 5 years with the Lakers, Wilt made the playoffs all 5 years.”
“F No,he’s not a true purple Gold he’s just here aun LA for convenience.”
“Nah, Lebron has to win another chip or at least make it deep into the playoffs in each of the next 3 seasons first.”
“He delivered a title to the city, raise it up.”
“Yes, we don’t tie Boston without him.”
“Imo, yes, he deserves it, already the 23.”
It’s odd for LeBron James, considering that he has now played for 3 teams in his career and delivered titles for all of them wearing different numbers. While that means he is beloved in all 3, he doesn’t get the same amount of respect and love as he would have if he did it with just one franchise. His numbers next to Wilt are interesting, though. Not many would be against the Lakers retiring LeBron’s jersey.
