The Los Angeles Lakers made likely the biggest splash of the summer, luring LeBron James away from his hometown of Cleveland and into the bright lights of Staples Center.
Neither the Lakers brass nor ownership is celebrating this massive signing at all, at least not yet. Controlling-owner Jeanie Buss explained it simply.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” she said, according to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times.
General manager Rob Pelinka piggybacked off that same concept, telling reporters why this is still a work in progress for the franchise.
“We don’t celebrate signings,” Pelinka said during a recent press conference. “We don’t celebrate roster additions. We celebrate championships… Our ultimate celebration is to win an NBA championship. Of course we’re going to take pleasure, (because) as I opened with, it’s the ultimate validation for a player like LeBron to choose to come here, so that is a celebration, just not an ultimate celebration.”
The Lakers have followed James with a myriad of one-year deals, playing it all on a trial basis before they hunt for Kawhi Leonard or a plethora of available free agents in 2019, which is bound to be a spending extravaganza for any teams with available cap space.
Perhaps the celebration will have to wait a year or two more, because let's not kid ourselves here — the Lakers are a franchise that wants hardware, and they've starved from it since Kobe Bryant's last title in 2010.
Seven of the last 10 titles belong to the West, further reinforcing the thought that it will be all the much more difficult competing with uber-loaded squads in the immediate future.
Follow Us
Subscribe