Throughout the 2016-17 NBA campaign, rumors abounded about then-Indiana Pacers forward Paul George's desire to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. George grew up a Lakers fan in California and always dreamed of wearing the purple and gold.
He appeared to be so dead-set on Los Angeles that after that season was over, George informed the Pacers that he would not be re-signing with the team the following summer, giving them time to trade him.
Unfortunately for George, Indiana did not deal him to his dream franchise. Instead, the Pacers sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a deal that landed them Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis and, consequently, made them one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

On the surface, it looked like a great deal for the Thunder. They were getting another star to play alongside of Russell Westbrook, with George kind of playing the poor man's Kevin Durant role. The problem was, Paul George did not agree to a contract extension with Oklahoma City as part of the trade, meaning the Thunder were taking a fairly big risk that most people thought they would lose out on.
Surely, George was going to Hollywood, right? Especially considering the fact that LeBron James-to-LA seemed like a shoo-in, it was hard to imagine PG not taking his talents to Tinseltown during the summer of 2018.
But then, George shocked the NBA world.

The 28-year-old did not even test the free-agent market, opting to re-up with the Thunder and choosing Westbrook and Co. over playing with James for the franchise he long admired. How? Why would George pass up an opportunity to play with the best player in the world for his favorite team in the world in sunny California in order to stay in little Oklahoma City with a shoot-first point guard?
The answer is simple: LeBron James.
What looked to possibly be Los Angeles' biggest selling point to George ended up being its most fatal flaw, and it may also be what keeps the likes of Kawhi Leonard away. And Kevin Durant. And Jimmy Butler. And Kyrie Irving.
There was a time when other stars would have loved to play with James, but now, playing with LeBron is actually becoming sort of taboo in NBA circles. Think about it: playing alongside of James is not exactly a cushy job. You get little to none of the credit when the team wins and you get all of the blame when it loses.
Seven years ago, that was not the case. When the Miami Heat fell to the Dallas Mavericks during the 2011 NBA Finals, James took the lion's share of the blame because of his ineptitude in big moments during most of that series. But ever since then? It's been Chris Bosh's fault. It's been Irving's fault. It's been Kevin Love's fault. It's been J.R. Smith's fault. It's been a whiteboard's fault.
It seems blatantly obvious that George, who doesn't exactly have the greatest clutch reputation to begin with, did not want to deal with being LeBron's scapegoat in Los Angeles, because we all know that when the Lakers inevitably lost to the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs, we would have seen nonstop criticism heaped on to the back of George while James made it out of relatively unscathed.

So, Paul George figured he would stay in OKC with Westbrook, because, let's face it; when the Thunder lose, who takes the heat? Westbrook, 99 percent of the time.
Again, it's not just George, either. The whole reason why Kyrie wanted out of Cleveland was because he couldn't stomach playing with LeBron anymore. Kawhi now apparently favors the Clippers over the Lakers. Butler had ideas of going to the Lakers, but now that LeBron is there, he apparently wants nothing to do with that tea. And Durant? He explicitly stated that free agents don't want to play with James anymore.
It used to be a thing where you at least knew you were getting to the finals if you played with LeBron, as the Eastern Conference was easy to run through. Now, that is no longer the case, as James plays in the same conference as the Warriors, and even if he stayed in the East, he would have had teams like the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors (with Leonard) and Indiana Pacers to deal with.
So it has now come to a point where the cons of playing alongside of LeBron outweigh the benefits. You are no longer guaranteed a finals berth, but you are basically guaranteed to get ripped by the media and fans (and thrown under the bus by James himself) when you lose beforehand.
Why else would Paul George snub a franchise he has been dying to play for since he was a child? And why else would all of these fellow stars suddenly not want to touch Los Angeles with a 10-foot pole?
It's because of the 6-foot-8 all-time great at the center of it all.
And you know what? It's all our fault, because we built this monster. Not James himself, but the theatrics that come with the idea of him.
Sorry, LA.