{"id":731530,"date":"2026-06-12T07:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731530\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:48:08","slug":"you-know-who-has-the-power-here-kevin-love-thinks-lebron-james-creating-super-teams-was-a-turning-point-for-the-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731530\/","title":{"rendered":"“You know who has the power here” – Kevin Love thinks Lebron James creating super teams was a turning point for the league"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back at the early 2010s, nobody really understood that the NBA was heading into a new era when LeBron James<\/a> sat down for a live “ESPN” broadcast and dramatically announced he was taking his talents to South Beach.<\/p>\n

For the kid from Akron, Ohio, enough was enough. Despite multiple 60-win seasons and a trip to the NBA Finals, all the playoff heartbreaks with the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> had reached a boiling point. In his mind, it was time to move on.<\/p>\n

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After teaming up with Dwyane Wade<\/a> and Chris Bosh<\/a> in the Miami Heat<\/a> and capturing two championships, the time came for a homecoming. But that return came with a condition: another super team had to be waiting for him. This time, it featured Kyrie Irving<\/a> and Kevin Love<\/a>, who recently looked back on those landscape-shifting days.<\/p>\n

“It was a turning point for the league,” the five-time All-Star said<\/a>. “You know who has the power here. In the past, it was always ownership and the front office. LeBron completely flipped that on its axis.”<\/p>\n

James argued that super teams existed long before his era<\/p>\n

Those were the days when the general consensus was that a LeBron-led squad didn’t even need a coach or a general manager. At the end of the day, he had the final say. Beyond just dictating a powerhouse roster, those teams often featured his close friends with whom he shared elite off-court chemistry.<\/p>\n

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Because of this, he shared a locker room with Wade twice, later joined forces with Carmelo Anthony<\/a>, and has paired in the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> locker room with Team USA teammate Anthony Davis<\/a>, with whom he secured yet another title.<\/p>\n

While James himself has argued that super teams existed long before his era \u2014 pointing to the 2000s Boston Celtics<\/a> and the Lakers’ powerhouse trios like Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain \u2014 his move overnight became a blueprint for success that spread across the league like wildfire.<\/p>\n

At the time, James faced massive scrutiny for allegedly running away from adversity, with critics arguing his path to championship glory looked radically different from the peers he was chasing. James later explained why he isn’t bothered by the narrative that he left Cleveland to chase rings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“I was comfortable with changing that narrative because my journey is different from those guys’ journey,” James explained. “I wasn’t privy to that. M.J. spent his first couple years without a Hall of Fame teammate. But then, boom, they drafted Scottie Pippen, and boom, here comes Phil Jackson.”<\/p>\n

“I didn’t see that the franchise was going on the trajectory that I was going on in my career,” James continued. “I wanted more. I wanted to win at the highest level. It’s no different from someone in business going from one place to the next place, because they get a better opportunity to be around better people. In sports, sometimes people get so caught up in ‘He should do this on his own.’ I don’t play tennis, and I don’t play golf. The way I grew up is, we’ve got to do this together as a team.”<\/p>\n

Related: “We saw the dumbest basketball team in the history of civilization” – Charles Barkley reacts to the SA Spurs’ historic Game 4 meltdown<\/a><\/p>\n

Copycat league<\/p>\n

Following that blueprint, we eventually witnessed the failed super team experiments of Kevin Durant<\/a> with both the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> and the Phoenix Suns<\/a>, as well as the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> consistently surrounding Kawhi Leonard<\/a> with mega-stars, among several other examples.<\/p>\n

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Yet, the core takeaway traces right back to “The Decision” \u2014 the exact moment players realized they could seize far more control than ever before, ushering in the modern era widely recognized as a “players’ league.”<\/p>\n

Cases like Ben Simmons<\/a> or James Harden<\/a>, who practically forced their way out of their respective franchises, are prime examples of how top-tier superstars can hold front offices hostage. However, judging by the last two postseasons, that narrative might finally be shifting.<\/p>\n

Above all, it has become clear as day that the super team era is behind us, at least for now. Success is once again being built through savvy drafting and smart trading, restoring the general manager’s role as vital to a championship blueprint.<\/p>\n

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At least until the next time the narrative flips. After all, the biggest superstars have always dictated the trends. Or, as LeBron would put it: the NBA is a copycat league.<\/p>\n

Related: When LeBron James thanked his estranged father for all of his success: “Because of you Pops”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking back at the early 2010s, nobody really understood that the NBA was heading into a new era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[14727,14712,1222,6996,49,48,17873,51177,2357,26978,1525,14728,6695,34449,15047,2327,1527,8231,8224,459,6002,82,263377],"class_list":["post-731530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-ben-simmons","tag-boston-celtics","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-chris-bosh","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-james-harden","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kevin-love","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-sports","tag-super-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731530","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=731530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}