OPINION
In exhibition games thus far for the stacked Mens 5×5 Team USA Basketball team there are two players leading all statistical categories and clearly playing above the rest.
They also happen to be teammates in the NBA. Shockingly, the team they play for is not real title contender.
That’s right. The two players dominating the world stage on a roster made up of the very best players available are teammates, but not for a contender…
How is this even possible?
You’d have to ask Los Angeles Lakers leadership about that. Somehow, since the bizarre dismantling of their title winning team in 2020, owner Jeanie Buss, Executive Rob Pelinka, and virtually every other high ranking core leader of the franchise has kept their jobs while missing the playoffs or being ousted early.
All the while they have rostered these very same two elite players, all time greats by any measure, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The list of bad moves made by Laker leadership is too long and tedious to recount, and it’s also unnecessary. The proof is in the results, or lack thereof. For one of the most valuable franchises in the world which claims to only have one goal (winning championships) the past 4 years have been a complete catastrophe.
The question goes beyond how the Lakers have managed to waste excellent seasons from all-time greats in James and Davis. The question is how the people responsible have stayed employed. By their very own measure they have repeatedly failed.
The Lakers are on their 3rd coach since the 2020 title, and they are running it back with the same roster that lost in the first round last season after barely making the play-in tournament. This is despite claims that they would make a big swing this offseason.
Another season fighting for a playoff spot while leaning heavily on two legends and a poor supporting cast seems to be on deck, while charging absurd rates for tickets, generating massive income, and doing little to deliver a better on-court product. The big change really shouldn’t come with the roster though, it should come at the top.
