3 hours ago
2
In a book about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s only fitting that one memorable scene involves a Hollywood star: Will Smith.
Yaron Weitzman’s latest book is titled A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers. Suffice to say the plot thickens when Smith goes to the Lakers’ film room to speak to the team in 2022.
Six months had passed since Smith had slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Now Smith was participating in a series of celebrity talks to the Lakers, an innovation brought in by general manager Rob Pelinka. According to the book, James asked Smith question after question until a scheduled half-hour visit had ballooned to nearly twice that amount, with fellow Laker Russell Westbrook growing visibly frustrated, frowning in a team photo with Smith.
“You get to see the personal, intra-office dynamics that impact the game that you don’t always think about,” Weitzman says of the scene.
He notes that those who’ve read the excerpt “seem to be cheering on Westbrook” and “latching on to the idea that it was LeBron’s fault, LeBron was a phony.” He points out that Westbrook has played for multiple NBA teams, and in LA, he was “awful on the court, hardheaded, no willingness to adjust his game.”
As for James: “He is the defining, not just basketball player … but athlete of my generation,” says the 37-year-old Weitzman. And, the author adds, “It seemed like the ‘merger’ between LeBron and the Lakers was fertile ground for the sort of reporting and storytelling” that’s fueled by what Weitzman calls behind the scenes drama.
Weitzman is no stranger to dissecting NBA franchises. It’s what he did in his previous book, about the Philadelphia 76ers, Tanking to the Top. With the Lakers, though, the spotlight was more intense. There was the team’s location in America’s entertainment epicenter. There was a legacy of championships won by stars from Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O’Neal, the last two coached by the legendary Phil Jackson. (Last season brought another addition to the pantheon – Luka Dončić – but we’ll get to him later.) There was the role of the Buss family, especially the late longtime team owner Jerry Buss and his daughter, Jeanie, who succeeded him in the executive office. Then there was what Weitzman called the “merger” between the Lakers and James, who brought a star power all his own – as well as the increasingly powerful agency that represented him: Klutch Sports Group, run by James’ friend Rich Paul.
How rare is James’s status in the NBA? The book notes his estimated billion-dollar-plus worth while still on an NBA roster, and his dream of someday owning a franchise. Weitzman tracks the impact of James’ comments to the media – including some much-scrutinized remarks at a press conference after the Lakers’ 2023 playoff exit: “I’ve got a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”
Neither James nor team ownership would talk with Weitzman for the book. He filled in the gaps by reading the news coverage from as far back as 15 years ago, supplementing this by watching documentaries, listening to podcasts and speaking with whoever would talk to him, a list that grew to almost 300. Keep an eye out for the footnotes while reading the book. Weitzman describes them as “like someone winking at the reader.”
On page 54, you’ll find not one but two footnotes relating to Daenerys Targaryen. Why? Bryant is quoted urging Jeanie Buss to emulate the Game of Thrones character in early 2017. That’s when, according to the book, she won a George RR Martin-esque power struggle for control of the team. The next year, James came to LA for four years and $154m.
“The Lakers were in a dark period,” Weitzman says. “They certainly needed LeBron. LeBron saved Jeanie Buss’ legacy by coming there.” He adds that unlike past stars such as Magic, Kobe or Shaq, LeBron came to the Lakers as “a fully formed icon, which they had not had before.”
There were significant if not immediate benefits: A championship in James’ second season with the Lakers, 2019-20 – a season that ended amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. It was also a season that saw the death of Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. Coach Frank Vogel kept the team focused as it played before empty stands in the NBA bubble. It was title No 17 for the Lakers, tying them with the Boston Celtics for the all-time league mark.
Would there be an encore? Pelinka tried to add more talent around James, and in 2021 he brought in Westbrook. Yet the 2021-22 team couldn’t even qualify for the playoffs to defend its title, and Vogel lost his job.
Darvin Ham succeeded Vogel as coach. James continued to dazzle on the court, yet the team struggled around him. The book finds a perfect microcosm: On 7 February 2023, James broke the all-time NBA scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. There were cheers for James after he set the mark late in the third quarter, and a salute from commissioner Adam Silver. However, as the book points out, it was the Thunder who won the game. The Lakers stood at 25-30, in danger of missing the playoffs once more.
Cue more plot twists. The Lakers traded away Westbrook, and saw their fortunes surge. They made the playoffs, going all the way to the West finals, which Denver swept. It was an encouraging first season for Ham, yet the following season the Nuggets ousted the Lakers again, this time in the first round of the playoffs. The hated Celtics won the title that season, moving them ahead of LA for that record 18th banner.
Parting ways with Ham, the Lakers flirted with UConn coach Dan Hurley before he ultimately turned LA down. The Lakers hired player-turned-podcaster JJ Redick and made a unique decision in the draft: They selected James’ son Bronny at No 54, setting up a rare father-son pairing in the lineup. Then, earlier this year, Pelinka made a league-shattering move, dealing Anthony Davis for Mavericks superstar Dončić, who is already one his way to replacing James as the face of the Lakers.
By that point, Weitzman thought he was finished with the manuscript, which initially ended with Bronny joining James on the Lakers. As they say in Hollywood, get me a rewrite.
“I live in New York. The Lakers were playing the Knicks that night at Madison Square Garden,” Weitzman recalls of the Dončić trade. “I was at the game, then I was driving my way home, saw the tweet – oh my God.”
The book wraps up in where-are-they-now style, giving readers updates on the cast. Among them: The Buss family has sold its majority stake to Mark Walter, the owner of the cross-town LA Dodgers, with Jeanie Buss remaining as governor and keeping 15% ownership.
“I’m curious to see where this goes,” Weitzman says. “Is she going to stay or go? I’m dubious whether she actually can stay … Usually, people who pay the money want to be in charge.”
As for James?
“Playing into his 40s, it’s something unparalleled,” Weitzman marvels. “In the major professional American sports, the four major sports, Tom Brady is the only comparison. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
English (US)