LeBron James has been the face of the NBA for a decade at this point. While he’s shared the spotlight with Steph Curry at times, he’s been the most talked-about basketball player for a very long time.
The Los Angeles Lakers star is 40 now and likely facing retirement in the next year or two. There’s been a lot of speculation about who will eventually replace James as the face of the NBA. Nikola Jokic is the best player, but he doesn’t have enough personality.
The league seems to want Anthony Edwards to take the mantle, but he may just not be good enough. He’s a great player, but the face of the league is typically a top-three player. James’ agent and CEO of Klutch Sports, Rich Paul, doesn’t think that anybody will truly be the face of the NBA once James retires.
“When you get paid a lot of money, that can’t be the end-all, be-all. I think the care for the game, the approach, the professionalism, how you conduct yourself matters,” Paul said on a previous episode of the “Pat McAfee Show.” “The things within the game and the integrity that you carry matters. The league can be whatever the players want it to be. I think the league has to be looked at as a partner, it can’t just be looked at as a bank and I’ve said that before several times and I also say that to my guys. There’s a responsibility and accountability that comes with being a professional athlete. It’s even a higher level of that, that comes with being a star or a budding star or one of the legendary guys in the league.
I know we had that face of the league conversation and I don’t think there’s gonna be a next ‘face of the league.’ I think there’ll be a community, just like it was when Jordan left in ’98 it became a community. So I think we should embrace that. It’s not naming somebody, if it becomes one face then that’s because that person earned it, but I think it’s multi-faceted. But I look forward to it, I’m really just enjoying a lot of these guys and I’m glad they’re getting their flowers, but I do want them to remember there is a responsibility. Some days you have to play hurt, you know everyone’s not 100% when you get to this part of the season. I think the league is in a good spot, they got the TV deal done. I think there’s some things we can improve on, like everything else in life. None of us are perfect we’re all under construction so its just a matter of how we wanna improve.”
Why Not Luka Doncic?
One obvious candidate to be the next face of the NBA is Luka Doncic. He’s arguably one of the three best players in the world, he plays with a lot of swagger and he’s now the best player on one of the league’s premier teams.
That said, the Lakers would need to win the championship in the next two years for that to be solidified. Even then, it doesn’t sound like Paul is buying that idea.
Lakers Need to Re-Take Home Court Advantage
The Lakers head into Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs tied at 1-1 with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Los Angeles lost home court advantage in Game 1, and they’ll have to pick up a win on the road in Minnesota. Winning on Friday would give the Lakers control of the series, so Game 3 is going to be a big one.
