After spending the majority of his NBA career with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a four-year stint with the Miami Heat, superstar LeBron James is now with the Los Angeles Lakers organization in what will likely be his final spot in the league before he retires.
Although LeBron will make the Lakers competitive again after a long playoff drought, there's been a lot of debate about whether he can win and what playing for Los Angeles will mean to his legacy. James joins a long line of great players to play for the storied franchise and Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal was recently asked whether LeBron is already among these iconic players to wear purple and gold, via Sports Illustrated.
“I think he is going to have to win in those four years that he's there,” O'Neal said of James. “At least once. I mean, he's already a great player like you said. He's already touted as the greatest player in the game, but to be considered a great Laker, you have to win.
“I remember when I first got there I was putting up big numbers, the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, ‘Shaq is pretty good, but he hasn't won yet.' That kind of hit me and changed my focus a little bit and started winning, so I'm sure it is the same rules for every great player that comes to the Laker organization.”
Shaq broke it down into simple terms that winning at least one championship will put LeBron in the same breath as some of the best players in the franchise's history like Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Kareem, and himself.
The real question is whether James will be able to accomplish this feat in four years time. The Golden State Warriors still look like an unstoppable force in the Western Conference and the Houston Rockets may not be too far behind meaning James will need some help in Los Angeles if they expect to hang another banner in the rafters at the Staples Center.
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