LeBron James is ready to embark on yet another championship hunt next season. The Los Angeles Lakers have built a new roster to surround James and Anthony Davis, including Russell Westbrook who will effectively help the Lakers form their own big 3.
James had a difficult season last year. He started the year off strong. But after the All-Star break, an ankle injury kept him out for almost the entirety of the regular season. James was able to make it back in time for the playoffs, but the Lakers had too many injury issues to be able to get past the Phoenix Suns.
For the first time in his career, James was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. James, who had made reaching the NBA Finals an annual tradition over the last decade, did not accept this defeat lightly and made sure he and the Lakers did everything in their power to ensure this didn’t happen again.
Almost the entire Lakers roster was cleaned out, except for James, AD, and Talen Horton-Tucker. Aside from Westbrook, the Lakers signed several new players like Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore, DeAndre Jordan, Kendrick Nunn, and Malik Monk.
In an effort to integrate the squad, the Lakers had a fun activity lined up for the squad; class superlatives. Each player would vote on titles like ‘Best Dressed’, ‘Sneaker King’, and ‘Life Of The Party’ among others.
LeBron James bagged himself the title of ‘Sneaker King’, with 9 votes in his favor. But a close look at his voting card shows (slide 3) that James voted for himself in that category. On top of that, he also voted for himself in the ‘Best Dressed’, ‘Best Energy’ and ‘Best Dunker’ categories.
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All these activities will be fun, but soon the tough work begins. The Lakers are set to start preseason soon, and the NBA season tips off in nearly 3 weeks. James and the Lakers will be looking to make a quick start going into the new season.
With LeBron reaching close to 37 years of age, his championship window is closing. He will want to capitalize on his ability to still play at the highest level by winning another championship before he calls time on his legendary career. And if the Lakers squad and can play well around him, then he has a great chance of winning a chip.
