The Lakers give an aging star a generous contract extension, ensuring he’ll play in their uniforms.
The Lakers know this contract will limit their ability to win a championship, but they give it to him anyway.
And indeed, from the moment the contract was signed, the team went on to have six consecutive losing seasons, including one with the fewest wins in Lakers history.
This was the definitive impact of the Kobe Bryant era.
Read more: Plaschke: Lakers Stuck in Mediocre Hell with No Hope in Sight After Season-Ending Loss
And this will be the ultimate impact of the LeBron James era?
It certainly looks like it. It certainly feels like it. It seems like the Lakers have been here before, and it doesn’t look good.
When James agreed to a two-year contract worth up to $104 million on Wednesday morning, it ensured that the Lakers would be irrelevant for several seasons, just like Kobe.
Granted, James is a much stronger player than Bryant was in his final years. And yes, this team has Anthony Davis, those teams had Timofey Mozgov.
But the sense of hopelessness is the same. And the feeling that the Lakers’ future is on the line to please one player is real.
Want some scary numbers? If we take the Kobe Bryant scenario as a guide, the Lakers won’t be contenders until 2028, eight years after their bubble title and 18 years after their last full-season championship.
It will certainly be cool to see James, who turns 40 in December, finish out his career in a Laker uniform.
But if you remember, it was great to see Bryant finish out his career in a Laker uniform.
Cool, yet so destructive.
In those dark days, the Lakers couldn’t convince a single top free agent to join a team essentially run by Bryant. The Lakers had no plan. The Lakers couldn’t sell a culture. The Lakers never had a chance. Apparently, just like now.
Remember all the missteps? They couldn’t talk Carmelo Anthony out of New York. They botched a meeting with LaMarcus Aldridge that went so badly, they had to schedule a second meeting.
Read more: Plaschke: No cheers in the press box? Kobe playing Mamba changed that
Kevin Durant didn’t want to argue with them. Isaiah Thomas and Kyle Lowery didn’t want to listen to them.
The season after Bryant retired, they were led by D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young and Julius Randle and Jeanie Buss, they finally had enough.
In February 2017, they fired vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss and longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak and brought in Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson.
A year later James showed up. Three years later they won a championship.
But four seasons later, they’re back to square one, which makes you wonder.
How long will Buss wait before making another Lakers-crushing move? Faced with a prolonged losing streak, how long before she shakes things up again? If the Lakers collapse around James’ final days like they collapsed around Bryant’s final days, can Pelinka survive?
You’ll recall that Buss wasn’t afraid to fire her own brother. I’m guessing she wouldn’t be afraid to fire Bryant’s former agent either.
Pelinka has not had a good summer. Less than a year after he was a hero by amassing enough talent to lead this team to the Western Conference finals, he is back in the familiar doghouse, and there is no telling when he will escape again.
Pelinka was rejected by his leading coaching candidate Dan Hurley, a man who wouldn’t even leave Storrs, Connecticut, for the Lakers because he saw no future there.
Pelinka then went with a second choice: JJ Redick, who had never coached at a level higher than youth basketball and whose main qualification seemed to be his friendship with James.
Pelinka won the first round of the draft by taking shooting star Dalton Knecht, but then risked throwing the upcoming season into chaos by giving in to James’ wishes and drafting his son Bronny.
This kid is clearly not ready for the NBA yet, and Pelinka undoubtedly added fuel to the fire by giving him a four-year contract worth nearly $2 million per year.
Read more: Plaschke: Dan Hurley rejection is new humiliation for Lakers brand
The offseason ended with a horrific spectacle: a player who was perfect for the Lakers refused to sign with them because they are no longer the Lakers.
That player was Klay Thompson, and the Lakers offered him almost everything he could want: a reported $80 million, a chance to play in games called by his father Mychal, and the opportunity to spend the entire year at his Orange County home.
And yet he rejected them.
The one thing the Lakers couldn’t offer was a legitimate shot at a championship, something the Dallas Mavericks were three wins away from this season. Thompson turned down the Lakers — even though their offer was more than $20 million higher than the Mavs’ — because of the perception that the Mavs could win and the Lakers couldn’t.
James even offered to accept less money to make this possible. And do you know how rare that is?
How far has this 17-championship franchise really sunk?
Read more: Plaschke: Give the kid a chance! Bronny James feels like he’s in trouble for no reason
Thompson’s decision said it all. The Lakers have been mediocre when they play with James and Anthony Davis because they haven’t added or kept the right players around them. Pelinka ripped apart the 2020 championship team to sign James’ buddy Russell Westbrook, and they haven’t been the same since.
Last year’s 47-35 record and play-in tournament appearance? Rewind it. The team will be essentially the same.
Their chances of winning a championship with James still active? Slimmer than slim. They still don’t have enough around him, and would need some sort of miracle in-season trade to become a legitimate threat.
The Lakers enter the 2024-25 season amid accusations of nepotism, incompetence and tarnished luster.
They have been here before.
This is starting to get old.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
