Andrew Bynum took a shot at the Laker fans after leaving: “I haven’t had the opportunity to play for a city that is really just gonna stand up and really support the team” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
There was always this strange fog hanging over Andrew Bynum.
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He was supposed to be one of those stories that Lakers fans always remembered, but most of the time, he felt more like a question mark than an answer.
He was 17 when the Lakers took him, the youngest player in the league, and they threw him right into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s arms to learn the ways of the greats. For a minute, it felt like it might actually work.
The downfall
There were stretches, especially during the back-to-back title runs in ’09 and ’10, when Bynum looked like the future. That version of him, battling through pain, locking down the paint, making life hell for the other team’s big man, felt real. But it never lasted.
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The knees always came back to ruin the party. There was always another setback and another season where it just didn’t line up the way it should have. And when it finally ended in L.A., it felt like something had been left behind.
After the Lakers, he wound up in Cleveland and that’s when the shot came in. Subtle, but not subtle enough to miss.
“I just know that they’re really, really passionate [fans] and I haven’t had the opportunity to play for a city that is really just gonna stand up and really support the team,” Bynum said in his first press conference as a Cavalier. “I’m super excited and I can’t wait to see what it’s like.”
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Lakers fans had to have heard every word. They’d stood by him for seven seasons, watched him get drafted as a kid and cheered when he helped them win titles. They were there for the surgeries and the stretches where he didn’t look interested, and they still believed in the possibility of him.
And now he was calling Cleveland his first real basketball home?
Bynum wasn’t a role player during those years in L.A. He was part of one of the best frontcourts in the league next to Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, giving Phil Jackson the size and skill he loved to deploy. He made the All-Star team in 2012 and had some dominant runs where he looked like the most imposing big man in the league.
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But it all unraveled fast after that.
He got dealt in the Dwight Howard trade and sent to Philadelphia in that huge four-team deal, but he never played a game there because of those same knees. By the time Cleveland took the swing in 2013, nobody really knew what was left.
The deal was structured carefully, partly guaranteed and partly incentive-based, just in case he couldn’t stay on the court. For a team trying to patch itself together after LeBron James’s first exit, it felt like a move worth trying. And for a while, it didn’t look so bad. He gave them 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in about 20 minutes a night.
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By January, the Cavaliers suspended him for conduct detrimental to the team. A few days later, he was traded to Chicago. The Bulls didn’t even bother keeping him. They waived him and cleared cap space. Indiana took a chance after that, and he made it through two games before the knee pain came back for good. That was it.
Looking back
Bynum’s story is frustrating, because you could see how good he could be. There weren’t many big men with his touch, his timing and feel. But the motor never matched the talent (even Kareem would agree) and the body never held up long enough for the rest of it to catch fire.
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He had Kobe Bryant in his ear. He had the best footwork coach in the world, in Kareem. He had title rings and real playoff experience.
But somewhere in there, something didn’t quite take. There was always something unfinished about Bynum. The talent was real, but it came and went, and by the end, all that was left was that quote in Cleveland.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 28, 2025, where it first appeared.