An NBA team usually takes after the identity of its best player. But that may not always be a positive, as the Los Angeles Lakers can attest to after losing their 2023-24 season opener against the Denver Nuggets, 119-107. Their best player, LeBron James, doesn't exactly get off to strong starts anymore, as he tends to rev up the intensity the deeper he gets into the season, but as a result, the Lakers have always started the season on the backfoot ever since he moved to LA in 2018.

Per ClutchPoints Twitter, ever since the Lakers signed James in free agency five years ago, they have gone 0-6 on season openers, which isn't exactly a streak that anyone would want, much less for a player with ambitions as great as James'.

It's important to point out that the Lakers always have a tough draw when it comes to season-opening contests, so it's not like that can be held against them. Over the past four seasons, the Lakers have faced the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors twice each. The Clippers may not be looked at as genuine contenders nowadays, but they have always had the Lakers' number. Meanwhile, the Lakers, when they faced the Warriors in 2021 and 2022, still had to figure out the spacing problems brought forth by their acquisition of Russell Westbrook.

Perhaps the Lakers' only inexcusable loss came in 2018, when they suffered a defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers; but that Blazers team made it to the Western Conference Finals, so it was always going to be a difficult matchup for LA either way.

Nevertheless, this is a streak that doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Even though the Lakers have gone 0-6 on season openers, it hasn't exactly acted as an omen of sorts for the way their season would turn out. After all, the Lakers won the championship in 2020 and they also made it all the way to the WCF last postseason. One game is just 1.2 percent of the 82-game regular season grind after all. So take heart, Lakers fans, because there's no shame in extending this dubious streak, especially if those losses come against excellent teams.