Legacies are mostly abstract. Trophies, banners and records all matter. But the things that cement a player or a team or a moment are less defined. It’s not so much what happened; it’s how what happened made you feel.
In Cleveland, James made people feel inspired because he was one of them and he got them to the top. In Miami, people felt vindication that the super team chose South Florida as its home, lived up to the hype and stared down its fiercest critics.
But what did James make people in Los Angeles feel?
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The answer is probably not enough for either James or Lakers fans to fully appreciate what this chapter of his career meant. After eight seasons, James informed the Lakers he plans to move on and play for another team in his 24th season.
He arrived in Los Angeles under a cloud of cynicism. He wasn’t leaving the Cavaliers and the cozy Eastern Conference for basketball reasons, some people thought. It must have been for Hollywood, to boost his off-court ventures and become a movie star.
The Lakers he joined were young. They were also not very good. They’d built momentum the year before with Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart, but they were still a losing team.
Those pieces, though, got James the most talented big man he’d ever play with in Anthony Davis. Together, they were a dominant force in 2019-20. They won 17 of their first 19 games and rolled through most of the regular season. But that season isn’t remembered for any of that.
That year, the Lakers organization and its fans endured unimaginable sorrow after Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s tragic deaths in a helicopter crash that also killed seven others. Less than two months later, the NBA season, like much of the world, shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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James’ greatness that season — he would lead the Lakers to their 17th title and win his fourth finals MVP — couldn’t undo any of the other things that changed the organization and Los Angeles forever.
It meant that James never got to celebrate with Angelenos to recreate the excitement Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Pat Riley experienced in the 1980s or the wild parties Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson had with Shaquille O’Neal — and later, Pau Gasol — enjoyed in the 2000s.
It meant that James wouldn’t play a home playoff game in front of a full crowd in Los Angeles until April 22, 2023 — more than four years after he signed with the Lakers.
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By then, James had become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer — something that should’ve been one of the great moments in franchise history. Instead, like so many of James’ individual milestones with the Lakers, it came in a loss, the team in total disarray after its trade for Russell Westbrook had left the Lakers exhausted, frustrated and flailing.
James played for Luke Walton. He played for Frank Vogel. He played for Darvin Ham. He played for JJ Redick. All of it lacked permanence; all of it made James’ time in Los Angeles feel differently than what it actually was — the longest continuous stretch with one organization in his career.
Fans probably became numb to James’ consistency and his longevity, the milestones arriving every few weeks when James became the oldest player to do this or the oldest player to do that. They probably became numb to repeated conversations about the Lakers unwillingness to fully get behind James because they were fearful of a rapid decline that never fully came. James was too good to move off of; too old for the Lakers to fully commit to exhausting future assets to improve rosters in the short term.
All of it complicated things between James, Lakers fans and the city they shared together. A full embrace never came because it would’ve been impossible because of how much they cared about Bryant and because of how circumstances kept James’ top moments as a Laker from fully being collectively celebrated.
Fittingly, James’ final chapter as a Laker could be the one that resonates most.
The Lakers were no longer James’ team. That became clear the second they traded Davis for Luka Dončić and kept James out of the loop on the decision. They asked him to cede responsibilities to Dončić and Austin Reaves, and he accepted, becoming an absurdly good third option for the first time in his basketball life — an evolution coming together quickly over a month in the back end of his 23rd season.
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But injuries to Dončić and Reaves thrust James back into the spotlight in the first round of the playoffs against the Rockets. James and the Lakers were underdogs, counted out because of how badly undermanned they were.
Instead, James led the Lakers to a series victory, a 41-year-old warrior taking out a younger, more athletic team with old-man strength and guile — physical force paired with force of will.
This was James in his natural state: a winner.
After the floor had fallen out from beneath the Lakers’ season, James somehow managed to keep them together. He somehow managed to fight off time, to push back fatigue. James simply was amazing.