{"id":340265,"date":"2025-12-12T10:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/340265\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:58:07","slug":"a-hollywood-ending-inside-the-final-days-of-lebron-james-in-los-angeles-lebron-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/340265\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hollywood ending? Inside the final days of LeBron James in Los Angeles | LeBron James"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a book about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, it\u2019s only fitting that one memorable scene involves a Hollywood star: Will Smith.<\/p>\n

Yaron Weitzman\u2019s latest book is titled A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers<\/a>. Suffice to say the plot thickens when Smith goes to the Lakers\u2019 film room to speak to the team in 2022.<\/p>\n

Six months had passed since Smith had slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Now Smith was participating in a series of celebrity talks to the Lakers, an innovation brought in by general manager Rob Pelinka. According to the book, James asked Smith question after question until a scheduled half-hour visit had ballooned to nearly twice that amount, with fellow Laker Russell Westbrook growing visibly frustrated, frowning in a team photo with Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to see the personal, intra-office dynamics that impact the game that you don\u2019t always think about,\u201d Weitzman says of the scene.<\/p>\n

He notes that those who\u2019ve read the excerpt \u201cseem to be cheering on Westbrook\u201d and \u201clatching on to the idea that it was LeBron\u2019s fault, LeBron was a phony.\u201d He points out that Westbrook has played for multiple NBA<\/a> teams, and in LA, he was \u201cawful on the court, hardheaded, no willingness to adjust his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for James: \u201cHe is the defining, not just basketball player \u2026 but athlete of my generation,\u201d says the 37-year-old Weitzman. And, the author adds, \u201cIt seemed like the \u2018merger\u2019 between LeBron and the Lakers was fertile ground for the sort of reporting and storytelling\u201d that\u2019s fueled by what Weitzman calls behind the scenes drama.<\/p>\n

Weitzman is no stranger to dissecting NBA franchises. It\u2019s what he did in his previous book, about the Philadelphia 76ers, Tanking to the Top. With the Lakers, though, the spotlight was more intense. There was the team\u2019s location in America\u2019s entertainment epicenter. There was a legacy of championships won by stars from Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O\u2019Neal, the last two coached by the legendary Phil Jackson. (Last season brought another addition to the pantheon \u2013 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 \u2013 but we\u2019ll get to him later.) There was the role of the Buss family, especially the late longtime team owner Jerry Buss and his daughter, Jeanie, who succeeded him in the executive office. Then there was what Weitzman called the \u201cmerger\u201d between the Lakers and James, who brought a star power all his own \u2013 as well as the increasingly powerful agency that represented him: Klutch Sports Group, run by James\u2019 friend Rich Paul.<\/p>\n

How rare is James\u2019s status in the NBA? The book notes his estimated billion-dollar-plus worth while still on an NBA roster, and his dream of someday owning a franchise. Weitzman tracks the impact of James\u2019 comments to the media \u2013 including some much-scrutinized remarks at a press conference after the Lakers\u2019 2023 playoff exit: \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I\u2019ve got a lot to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither James nor team ownership would talk with Weitzman for the book. He filled in the gaps by reading the news coverage from as far back as 15 years ago, supplementing this by watching documentaries, listening to podcasts and speaking with whoever would talk to him, a list that grew to almost 300. Keep an eye out for the footnotes while reading the book. Weitzman describes them as \u201clike someone winking at the reader.\u201d<\/p>\n

On page 54, you\u2019ll find not one but two footnotes relating to Daenerys Targaryen. Why? Bryant is quoted urging Jeanie Buss to emulate the Game of Thrones character in early 2017. That\u2019s when, according to the book, she won a George RR Martin-esque power struggle for control of the team. The next year, James came to LA for four years and $154m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lakers were in a dark period,\u201d Weitzman says. \u201cThey certainly needed LeBron. LeBron saved Jeanie Buss\u2019 legacy by coming there.\u201d He adds that unlike past stars such as Magic, Kobe or Shaq, LeBron came to the Lakers as \u201ca fully formed icon, which they had not had before.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were significant if not immediate benefits: A championship in James\u2019 second season with the Lakers, 2019-20 \u2013 a season that ended amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. It was also a season that saw the death of Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. Coach Frank Vogel kept the team focused as it played before empty stands in the NBA bubble. It was title No 17 for the Lakers, tying them with the Boston Celtics for the all-time league mark.<\/p>\n

Would there be an encore? Pelinka tried to add more talent around James, and in 2021 he brought in Westbrook. Yet the 2021-22 team couldn\u2019t even qualify for the playoffs to defend its title, and Vogel lost his job.<\/p>\n

Darvin Ham succeeded Vogel as coach. James continued to dazzle on the court, yet the team struggled around him. The book finds a perfect microcosm: On 7 February 2023, James broke the all-time NBA scoring record<\/a>, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. There were cheers for James after he set the mark late in the third quarter, and a salute from commissioner Adam Silver. However, as the book points out, it was the Thunder who won the game. The Lakers stood at 25-30, in danger of missing the playoffs once more.<\/p>\n

Cue more plot twists. The Lakers traded away Westbrook, and saw their fortunes surge. They made the playoffs, going all the way to the West finals, which Denver swept. It was an encouraging first season for Ham, yet the following season the Nuggets ousted the Lakers again, this time in the first round of the playoffs. The hated Celtics won the title that season, moving them ahead of LA for that record 18th banner.<\/p>\n

Parting ways with Ham, the Lakers flirted with UConn coach Dan Hurley before he ultimately turned LA down. The Lakers hired player-turned-podcaster JJ Redick and made a unique decision in the draft: They selected James\u2019 son Bronny at No 54, setting up a rare father-son pairing in the lineup<\/a>. Then, earlier this year, Pelinka made a league-shattering move, dealing Anthony Davis for Mavericks superstar Don\u010di\u0107, who is already one his way to replacing James as the face of the Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By that point, Weitzman thought he was finished with the manuscript, which initially ended with Bronny joining James on the Lakers. As they say in Hollywood, get me a rewrite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in New York. The Lakers were playing the Knicks that night at Madison Square Garden,\u201d Weitzman recalls of the Don\u010di\u0107 trade. \u201cI was at the game, then I was driving my way home, saw the tweet \u2013 oh my God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book wraps up in where-are-they-now style, giving readers updates on the cast. Among them: The Buss family has sold its majority stake to Mark Walter, the owner of the cross-town LA Dodgers, with Jeanie Buss remaining as governor and keeping 15% ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m curious to see where this goes,\u201d Weitzman says. \u201cIs she going to stay or go? I\u2019m dubious whether she actually can stay \u2026 Usually, people who pay the money want to be in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for James?<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying into his 40s, it\u2019s something unparalleled,\u201d Weitzman marvels. \u201cIn the major professional American sports, the four major sports, Tom Brady is the only comparison. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a book about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, it\u2019s only fitting that one memorable scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-340265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}