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Losers of five of their last seven, four of those losses by an average margin of 30.5 points, the Los Angeles Lakers have nothing to smile about, except perhaps LeBron James and son Bronny James, whose game-worn jerseys in their opening night win over thee Minnesota Timberwolves fetched a price tag of $102,000 at a Sotheby's auction. Now, that should take some of the edge off losing to the Wolves by 29 and then embarrassing themselves in Miami Heat by 41–a total margin of 70 points in two games.
“The unique package was made available via Sotheby's last month… with both items believed to have been worn when the Lakers played the [Timberwolves] on Oct. 22–the same night Bron and Bronny made NBA history,” per the report from TMZ.
LeBron's jersey, Lakers' internal rift
Per the same report, the auction house photo-matched LeBron James' jersey to opening night, media day, and preseason outings, and they repeated the process with Bronny James' jersey, though they remain unsure whether the Lakers rookie wore the same jersey in the three minutes he played in opening night.
Moreover, as the bidding closed on Tuesday night, the final price for the jerseys reached a whopping $102,000, a good old chunk of money for the James gang.
Still, if only they could transform those $102,000 to points, or at least buy the team some heart and pride, because in their four recent blowout losses, they came out with neither.
For instance, the best player on the team Anthony Davis put up a scorching 12 points in their 109-80 loss to the Wolves, while Bron shot a historically bad 4-16 from the field. Then, AD lit up the stat sheet with eight points in their 134-93 embarrassment to the Heat on Wednesday, while LeBron scored 29 against his former team.
What's wrong in Hollywood?
What's going on with the Purple and Gold? Davis suggested an internal rift among the Lakers players after the Heat game, seemingly confirmed when coach JJ Redick said the Lakers will hold a team meeting, including the coaching staff and the players, to keep the unit together.
Likewise, Bron blamed the players, including himself, for playing with zero defensive effort and lackadaisical offense. He's right, too, in that missing Austin Reaves due to injury doesn't excuse losing by more than 25 points for two games in a row.
Perhaps this is the Lakers–namely Bron and AD–trying to force Rob Pelinka to make a trade to improve the roster, while other teams apparently don't want their young players or D'Angelo Russell's expiring contract while the GM refuses to sweeten deals with their existing draft capital.
Right now, the Lakers are 12-10, and ninth in the Western Conference, but a five- or six-game losing skid in December could push them even deeper into the Conference basement.
With LeBron turning 40 at the end of the year, could Pelinka really afford angling for the perfect deal that may never even come?
