At the end of the night when LeBron James was finally allowed to play basketball again, he sat in his team’s locker room and talked about what time he had to watch. How he watches the game and thinks about individual game situations. And he asked himself: “How can I help the team?” This was heard in a video recording from the cabin last Tuesday night.
It seems that the best people of their time now want to adapt above all else. Play a supporting role. Because it’s clear to him that someone else has been playing a major role in LA since at least the fall.
The first few weeks of this NBA season, which LeBron James missed due to sciatica pain, were basically Luka Dončić weeks. In Los Angeles, where the team now follows its own rhythm; based on his passing, throwing and dribbling. But also in the league, where no other player has scored as many goals as Dončić. The Lakers are more Luke Lakers than ever. And with the Lakers being the team America is talking about, the NBA could be more of a Hurt league than ever in the future.
There were times when he seemed out of breath
In the summer, before the start of the NBA season, Dončić was the player with the most to prove. A few months earlier, manager Nico Harrison shipped him out of Dallas and traded him for Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers. Harrison believes the Dallas Mavericks will not be able to become champions with Dončić as their central player. Because of the way Dončić defended (not well), but also because of Dončić’s performance. Because, at least Harrison saw it, the weight was too heavy for a top athlete. There are times in big games when he seems to run out of steam.
How Luka Dončić reacts to the way he plays, driven by doubt, is the question of the NBA summer. And Dončić plays with the tension. In late July, a few months before the start of the first game of the season, his body graced the cover of Men’s Health magazine. Luka Dončić 2.0., that’s how the magazine dubbed the fitter and more muscular man seen on the cover.
The NBA world, which never stops even if it goes months without basketball games, has something to talk about. And Dončić has sent a message to the world: Someone here has a mission.
You can see it in the first few weeks of the season. After the first four games he was asked if he could imagine scoring 40 points per game. No one in the modern NBA has ever accomplished that — but no one in the modern NBA has ever scored as many points as he did in the first four games. Dončić waved his hand while grinning. That question alone speaks volumes about his abilities this year.
The most outstanding player in the league
After the first fifth of the season, he was still scoring over 34 points per game. He is the most eye-catching player in the league; no one else dictates their team’s offense than Dončić. The average “usage rate,” a value meant to indicate how much of an impact a player has on his team’s offense, is higher than anyone else’s since these grades have been collected.
Dončić doesn’t appear to be as fast and fluid as he was when he first played in the NBA, as a teenager in Dallas. But he looks fitter than in previous years. In this form, he is one of the first candidates for the league’s most valuable player award, MVP. And the news from Texas last week also fits the picture: In Dallas they have now released Harrison – the man who didn’t believe in Dončić.
Luka Dončić, on the other hand, extended his contract in the summer. He is now the face of the most famous team in the world and will be for the next three years.
This may be why the player’s agent Rich Paul said something this summer that kept the NBA world busy for a while: his client, LeBron James, knows that the Lakers are building a team for the future. So: for Dončić. However, James, who is 40 years old and playing in his 23rd season, needs a team now if he wants to become champion again. Sounds like tension in Hollywood.
But now that the team has won 11 of its first 15 games, it looks like this team can still be dangerous at this point. Because Dončić plays the way he plays, and because his co-star Austin Reaves has reached the next level this year. James, on the other hand, missed the start of the season for the first time this fall. The century-defining player faces a team that has adapted without him for the first time.
“Whatever the team needs, I can do it”
When LeBron James played his first game of the season on Tuesday, he did his best to adjust and adapt. Dončić was impressive, scoring 37 points – but James dished out twelve assists.
If Luka Dončić, the face of the Lakers, wants to be the face of the league, he has to win championships. It probably won’t look as good as the favorites Denver and Oklahoma played this year. However, it becomes more realistic if the new and old faces of the Lakers now complement each other well. Much depends on how well James adapts to Luke’s Lakers in the coming months – and whether they reach new heights with James, who has only occasionally played a starring role.
LeBron James got the answers to these questions the day before his game: “I can do anything on the court,” he said after practicing with the team again. “Whatever this team needs from me, I can do it.”
