{"id":235351,"date":"2025-08-17T02:11:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T02:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/235351\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T02:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T02:11:14","slug":"stephen-a-smith-blasts-lebron-james-for-la-lakers-crucial-mistakes-they-abided-by-your-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/235351\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith blasts LeBron James for LA Lakers’ crucial mistakes, ‘they abided by your wishes’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stephen A. Smith has given his opinion on Luka Doncic taking over as the face of the Lakers franchise from LeBron James.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old moved to LA in a blockbuster deal that not many saw coming.<\/p>\n

Although it was difficult for him to process initially, Luka Doncic<\/a> has settled in well to life as a Laker.<\/p>\n

He struggled with conditioning, but the Slovenian put in the work during the offseason<\/a> and looks like a new version of himself.<\/p>\n

Doncic signed a three-year extension<\/a> with the Purple and Gold, which means that he is set to lead the way after LeBron James\u2019<\/a> exit from the team, likely after the end of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

\"LukaPhoto by Luke Hales\/Getty ImagesStephen A. Smith believes the Lakers obliged all of James\u2019 demands <\/p>\n

James\u2019 free agency move to the LA Lakers<\/a> in 2018 was a franchise-defining moment as the team had not been performing well in previous years.<\/p>\n

His first season saw him miss a lot of games due to injuries, but things started to look positive in the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n

James led the franchise to their seventeenth championship and it seemed like they had the roster to add a few more.<\/p>\n

But after a second-round exit in the 2020-21 season, some important players were traded to add Russell Westbrook<\/a> to the roster.<\/p>\n

Smith explained how the Lakers agreed to all of James\u2019 demands during his time with the franchise, but revealed it was time for him to hand over<\/a> the reins to Doncic.<\/p>\n

\"StephenPhoto by Noam Galai\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cYou won a championship in the bubble. Kyle Kuzma did not have to be going after that, Alex Caruso didn\u2019t have to be going after that, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and others didn\u2019t have to be going after that. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe might look at them now and say, \u2018Okay that\u2019s past,\u2019\u00a0 Certainly not in the case of Caruso, he\u2019s just won a title in Oklahoma City. But in the immediate aftermath of that championship, you still needed those cats; you wanted your boy Russell Westbrook, what did the Lakers do? They gave you your boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wanted coaches gone, what did they do?\u00a0 They got rid of them. You wanted coaches to arrive, what did they do? They abided by your wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying he was wrong to have those wishes, you\u2019re the face of the franchise, you\u2019re the star, you\u2019re damn right you have to have a say. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, but the point is they obliged and so at some point in time, it\u2019s somebody else\u2019s turn and now it\u2019s Luka\u2019s turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lakers still need James to be his best <\/p>\n

James picking up his player option<\/a> could mean this is his last year in LA, but the team will need his best while he is still on the roster.<\/p>\n

The four-time champion will turn 41 in December, but he is still one of the best players in the league and can contribute to winning.<\/p>\n

Doncic is the MVP pick of many analysts due to the work he has put in, but if the Lakers are to compete they will need James to deliver.<\/p>\n

His IQ and playmaking abilities are qualities that the Lakers will require against tough defenses.<\/p>\n

Going into Year 23, James has a shot at history to surpass Robert Parish and become the player with the most NBA appearances to his name, which is another testament to his longevity.<\/p>\n

Not only is he just going to try and break that record, but James will be looking to do so in style by helping the Lakers compete for a championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith has given his opinion on Luka Doncic taking over as the face of the Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,6,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-235351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-lebron-james","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-luka-doncic","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115041683641549051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}