It ended not with a parade, not with confetti, not with one final crowning moment beneath the Hollywood lights — but with a slow walk off the court and the static hiss of another season excruciatingly cut short.
In a season that began with promises of redemption, the late-career brilliance of LeBron James and even a banner, the Los Angeles Lakers were silenced on their home floor with a 103-96 loss to the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, ending their postseason in five games. The third-seeded Lakers, heavy favorites to dispatch Minnesota, never truly looked the part..
A Bubble, a mirage, a first-round exit
For James, it was his second straight first-round exit — both in five games — and his third overall in just seven seasons with the franchise.
It’s a story now growing familiar. Not one of legacy being written, but of it being unraveled.
“These seven years in Los Angeles have been a scop, a mirage, a narrative, a script that has been played out,” Jason Whitlock said, later adding, “All of Hollywood, all the media is telling us this is an Oscar-level movie.”
James arrived in L.A. in the summer of 2018 to the sound of prophetic buzz. But since then, the ledger has been more sobering than sensational. He has now missed the playoffs twice, lost in the first round three times and only advanced beyond the opening round in two of his seven seasons with the Lakers.
The lone title was the result of a 2020 run through the NBA Bubble in Orlando, where the Lakers defeated the Heat in six games during a postseason unlike any other — without fans, under quarantine and against a backdrop of national upheaval.
That run remains his outlier. In total, James has played 53 playoff games as a Laker, averaging 26.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.7 assists. But those numbers, as eye-popping as they are, haven’t translated into sustained winning. In fact, L.A. has had to claw its way into the postseason in four of those seven years through the Play-In Tournament. In 2021, 2023 and now 2024, they barely scraped their way in before falling swiftly.
“This man has exited the first round of the playoffs multiple times while a Los Angeles Laker,” Whitlock continued. “This man has played with Anthony Davis and Luka Doncic and got one Bubble title, a Bubble title, the COVID title.”
“No fans, the NBA — desperate for relevancy and ratings — allowed the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James to win a Bubble title. Other than that, it’s been an abject failure. And it’s all been about LeBron stat-padding and chasing Michael Jordan.”
The criticism isn’t new. But the timing — after another unceremonious ending — only makes it feel more acute. As the seasons pile up, the narrative of James in purple and gold grows more complex. The four-time Most Valuable Player came west chasing ghosts. But the path has grown narrow, and the echoes of Chicago seem louder than ever.
Serial exits, serial fallout
“LeBron James is a serial coach killer. A serial coach killer,” Whitlock said. “Yes, he’s supporting JJ Redick at the moment … putting a rookie coach who’s done a podcast and hosted some ESPN TV show — this is a level of malpractice that is a serious mark against LeBron James’ G.O.A.T. status.”
In just seven seasons, James has seen Luke Walton, Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham all step into and out of the head coach seat in Los Angeles.
Vogel helped steer Los Angeles to its first title in 10 years. Ham, a rookie head coach when he took the Lakers job, led the franchise to a Western Conference finals. Neither lasted long. In the backdrop now, rumors swirl of James advocating for JJ Redick — a former player, broadcaster and podcast host — to assume the throne. It’s a bold idea if not an odd one, and it only adds to the complicated mosaic of his leadership era.
Underneath the surface is a franchise caught between dynastic ambition and yearly volatility. James has brought star power. He has brought relevance. But many will argue he has not brought postseason dominance fit for the gilded purple and gold heritage. Since arriving, his tenure has been defined by injury-plagued seasons, play-in scrambles and exits that come too early and too quiet.
The 2024 version of that script ended the same way the 2023 version did: in five games. Last season, it was Nikola Jokic and the eventual champion Denver Nuggets. This year, it was Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle and the Timberwolves — a team few believed would be the ones writing the Lakers’ final chapter.
James routinely puts up numbers. But at 40, even as he far exceeds the standard previously set by any player at his age in the history of the game, the question isn’t whether he can still produce. It’s whether those numbers are leading anywhere meaningful. And more pressing: whether the Lakers, under his reign, have run out of time.
There are 53 playoff games in LeBron’s L.A. chapter. One title. Three first-round losses. Two years with no playoffs at all. The numbers are there. But the banners, the needle is still stuck at one.
James has a $52.6 million player option to return to the Lakers for the 2025-26 season in which he’ll turn 41. The Lakers are firmly planted in facilitating quality talent around 26-year-old Luka Doncic. But the challenge is how president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka will balance the present with the still-elite-but-aging James and steps toward the future with Doncic knocking on the door of his prime.
