The Lakers are giving an aging star a generous contract extension that ensures he’ll retire in their uniform.
The Lakers know this contract will limit their ability to win a championship, but they give it to him anyway.
Indeed, from the moment this contract was signed, the team endured six consecutive losing seasons, including one containing the fewest wins in Lakers history.
This was the final impact of the Kobe Bryant era.
Learn more: Plaschke: Lakers stuck in mediocre hell with no hope in sight after season-ending loss
And will this be the final impact of the LeBron James era?
It sure looks like that’s the case. It sure looks like that’s the case. It seems like the Lakers have been there before, and it’s not a good thing.
When James agreed to a two-year, $104 million contract Wednesday morning, it set the Lakers on the path to several seasons of Kobe-tinged irrelevance.
Sure, James is a much stronger player than Bryant was in his later years. And, yes, this team has Anthony Davis; those teams had Timofey Mozgov.
But the sense of desperation is the same. And the feeling that the Lakers’ future has been mortgaged to please one player is real.
Want scary numbers? Using Kobe Bryant as an example, the Lakers won’t be contenders until at least 2028, eight years after their bubble title and 18 years after their last full-season title.
Of course, it will be cool to see James, who turns 40 in December, finish his career in a Laker uniform.
But if you remember, it was cool to see Bryant finish his career in a Laker uniform.
Cool, and yet, oh so destructive.
In those dark days, the Lakers failed to convince a single high-profile free agent to join a team that was essentially run by Bryant. The Lakers had no plan. The Lakers failed to sell a culture. The Lakers never had a chance. Like now, it seems.
Remember all those missteps? They failed to convince Carmelo Anthony to leave New York. They botched a meeting with LaMarcus Aldridge that went so badly they had to schedule a second meeting.
Learn more: Plaschke: No cheering in the press box? Kobe becoming Mamba was a game changer
Kevin Durant wouldn’t hire them. Isaiah Thomas and Kyle Lowry wouldn’t listen to them.
The season after Bryant retired, they were led by D’Angelo Russell, Nick Young and Julius Randle and Jeanie Buss had finally had enough.
In February 2017, it fired vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss and longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak and brought in Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson.
A year later, James came in. Three years later, they won a championship.
But four seasons later, they’re back to square one, which is thought-provoking.
How long will Buss wait before making another move that could break the Lakers? Facing a long losing streak, how long before she shakes things up again? If the Lakers collapse after James’ final days the way they collapsed after Bryant’s final days, can Pelinka survive?
You’ll recall that Buss wasn’t afraid to fire her own brother. Presumably, she won’t be afraid to fire Bryant’s former agent.
Pelinka hasn’t had a great summer. Barely a year after he was hailed as a hero for acquiring enough talent to lead this team to the Western Conference Finals, he’s back in his familiar niche, and it’s unclear when he’ll be out of it again.
Pelinka was rejected by his leading coaching candidate, Dan Hurley, a guy who wouldn’t even leave Storrs, Conn., for the Lakers because he saw no future there.
Pelinka then opted for a second-choice player, JJ Redick, who had never coached at any level beyond youth basketball and whose main qualification appeared to be a friendship with James.
Pelinka won the first round of the draft by grabbing rising star Dalton Knecht, but then risked throwing the upcoming season into chaos by succumbing to James’ wishes and drafting his son Bronny.
The kid is clearly not ready for the NBA, and Pelinka probably added fuel to the fire by offering him a four-year contract worth nearly $2 million per year.
Learn more: Plaschke: Dan Hurley’s rejection is another humiliation for Lakers brand
The offseason was then capped by the most damning sight: a player who was perfect for the Lakers refusing to sign here because they’re not the Lakers anymore.
That player was Klay Thompson, and the Lakers offered him almost everything he could want: $80 million, a chance to play in games announced by his father Mychal and a chance to spend the entire year at his Orange County home.
And he still refused them.
The only thing the Lakers couldn’t offer was a legitimate shot at a title, one the Dallas Mavericks were three wins away from last season. Thompson rejected the Lakers — even though their offer was about $30 million higher than the Mavs’ — because of the perception that the Mavs can win and the Lakers can’t.
James even offered to take less money to make this happen, and do you know how rare that is?
Seriously, how far has this 17-championship franchise fallen?
Learn more: Plaschke: Give That Kid A Break! Bronny James Is Being Unfairly Pressured
Thompson’s decision speaks volumes. The Lakers are mediocre when they play with James and Anthony Davis because they haven’t added or kept the right kind of players around them. Pelinka tore apart the 2020 championship team to sign James’ friend Russell Westbrook, and they haven’t been the same since.
Last year’s 47-35 record and play-in tournament appearance? Let’s rewind. The team will be essentially the same.
Their chances of winning a championship while James is still active? Less than slim. They still don’t have enough players around him and they would need a miraculous mid-season trade to become a legitimate threat.
The Lakers will enter the 2024-25 campaign amid accusations of nepotism, incompetence and tarnished luster.
They have been here before.
It’s starting to get boring.
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This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.