Lakers owner Jerry Buss (right) said that he would retire James (left)’ s jersey number in the future, which caused some fans to question. The Lakers have retired. Who is not a famous player with the back number of his jersey? James has only played for the Lakers for five years and won a championship. Is it a little insufficient?
Jeanie Buss, the owner of the Lakers, said in an exclusive interview with the media a few days ago that after LeBron James was elected to the Hall of Fame in the future, the Lakers would definitely retire the nickname of his own star. If this comes true, James is expected to become the second star in history whose jersey number has been retired by three teams. It’s just that James’s achievements in the Lakers deserve such glory.
James is undoubtedly the first person in the NBA today, and he has won four championships for three teams in his career, which also predicts that he may be retired by the Cavaliers, the Heat and the Lakers in the future.
On historical achievements, winning the first championship in team history for his hometown team is enough to hang his jersey high at the Cavaliers’ home; In terms of the number of championships, Erlianba in Nantan also gave him a strong confidence; However, in the Lakers, he has only led the team to the top once. It seems that it is not convincing enough for many Lakers fans to make James’ No.23 tied with the other 13 Lakers’ retirement numbers.
James started his NBA career with the Cavaliers and played for 11 seasons. In 2016, he helped the Cavaliers win the first championship in team history, which can be said to be the greatest star of the Cavaliers.
There are three main arguments against the retirement of James from the Lakers, including James’s lack of time in Los Angeles, the lack of times he led the team to win the championship, and his lack of distinctive Lakers color.
I haven’t been in the team long enough, which makes sense at first glance. After all, he has played five seasons in Hucai at present, which is really too short compared with the eleven seasons of Cavaliers. Even though he left after only four seasons in the Heat, James was often injured and missed in the Lakers. So far, he has only played 278 regular-season games in Zijin jersey, 16 fewer than in the Heat, and the total of 43 playoff games is less than half of that in the Heat.
However, Wilt Chamberlain, the only legendary center in history who can be retired by the three teams, played only five seasons in the Lakers, which was the final five seasons of his career, but Chamberlain’s No.13 was still retired by the Lakers. In the future, if James executes the player option in his current contract and retires after playing the 2024-25 season, he will have played for the Lakers for seven seasons, which should not be too short compared with Chamberlain.
As for leading the team to win the championship not enough times, this seems hard to refute. After all, James has only made a touchdown in the bubble park in 2020 so far. Apart from too few times, the purity of this golden cup is also questioned because of the different epidemic situation and competition system. Compared with the five championships brought back by Lakers stars such as Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James’ current contribution is indeed far from perfect. However, the aforementioned Chamberlain also won only one championship for the Lakers. If we refer to Chamberlain’s model, James’s back number still has some reasons to be retired by the Lakers.
There are many stars in the history of the Lakers, and several of them are founders of dynasties. Compared with their contributions to the Lakers, James is still difficult to compare with them. 2004-05 Flair player card
Finally, when it comes to James’ lack of distinctive Lakers colors, this is really the most unfavorable for him. James, who was born in Akron, has pure chivalry, and the golden age of his career was in the Heat, which made the image of his No.6 jersey deeply rooted in people’s hearts. By contrast, the connection between James and the Lakers was not close enough.
James didn’t wear other numbers in the Lakers, but the numbers 23 and 6 are still alternating, and he didn’t create a brand-new image in the new team with different back numbers. In addition, the existing impressions given by the Cavaliers and the Heat are too prominent, which makes James’s Lakers not bright enough and not representative enough.
Under such circumstances, if James wants to deepen his Lakers color in the rest of his career and silence those who question his incompetence, all he has to do is to bring back at least one more championship for Los Angeles.
If there are more than two championship rings in hand, James can not only surpass Chamberlain, but also surpass Jerry West. Although West has only one championship, he only played for the Lakers all his life. During this period, he led the team for the championship nine times, because he was blocked by the historical wall of Celtic legendary center Bill Russell. Compared with West, the relationship between James and the Lakers is not deep enough. If you want to increase your mark in Los Angeles, it will be absolutely helpful to win one more championship.
In the past, there were stars who were almost retired by three different teams, such as Shaquille O’Neal, whose retirement was announced by the Lakers and the Heat one after another, and he still couldn’t wait for the olive branch to debut the magic of the home team. On the other hand, James was able to book this historic achievement in advance. If the Lakers, like Bryant, retire the two numbers James used in the Lakers in one fell swoop, it is possible to set an unprecedented record, that is, one person has four back numbers retired by the team.
If James can really become the first person in history, he must at least add another crown to the Lakers, so that when his jersey retires at home in the future, the Lakers fans will be more convinced.
