Hernández: LeBron James makes excuses instead of being a leader for Lakers

Habits of the previous can resurface at sudden occasions, as one notably curious instance did on the Lakers’ follow facility Monday when it was broadcast around the globe.

LeBron James handed up a important shot.

With the Lakers solely a day faraway from the top of one other cataclysmic season and looking forward to an unsure future, they desperately wanted a frontrunner.

As an alternative, what they acquired was extra wishy-washiness from the passive-aggressive celebrity who calls himself a king.

The Lakers are misplaced, however James didn’t present them with any route. They’re a deflated franchise, however he didn’t supply any phrases of inspiration. They’re dysfunctional, however he didn’t settle for blame for his position of their failure in a manner that would have began rebuilding a tradition of accountability after their shameful scapegoating of Frank Vogel.

Talking simply a few hours earlier than Vogel’s firing was made official, James wouldn’t even acknowledge {that a} season wherein the Lakers went 33-49 and missed the playoffs was a failure.

“It’s not a failure in any respect,” James mentioned. “We got here to work each single day, put our exhausting hats on and tried to get higher every single day. And the outcomes simply didn’t occur for us. Nevertheless it’s not a failure.”

Requested how a lot accountability he took for the way the workforce’s season unfolded, he replied with a few traces of well-practiced lip service.

“Clearly, if you happen to observe me in any of my profession, once we don’t succeed, I take loads of the accountability,” he mentioned. “That’s simply who I’m. I want I might’ve been rather a lot higher in main this franchise this yr.”

So, mainly, he mentioned he was taking accountability with out specifying for what.

No matter how a lot blame he really deserves, when the perfect participant on a workforce holds himself to a excessive customary of accountability, it forces everybody else within the group to do the identical. That wasn’t the case right here.

James might have talked about his physique language, which frequently betrayed his insecurity in his less-talented teammates. He might have pointed to his inconsistent defensive play, which was a team-wide downside. He might have acknowledged his shortcomings as a expertise evaluator and recruiter, which contributed to an imbalanced roster that was too previous.

If something, he continued to distance himself from the personnel choices that produced some of the disastrous seasons in franchise historical past. By no means thoughts that he hosted conferences with potential commerce targets at his home.

“Ask me my opinion, I’m going to provide my opinion,” James mentioned. “However on the finish of the day, they’re going to make the choice that they really feel is greatest for the franchise.”

Requested what he entered the season anticipating of his finally unproductive partnership with Russell Westbrook that he helped dealer, James replied, “I don’t put any expectations on something.”

The one direct apology he made was for enjoying in simply 56 video games, however the admission sounded as if it had been designed to assist his excuse about how the Lakers had been ravaged by accidents.

What made the shortage of management problematic is that if James doesn’t present it, there’s nobody else within the group who can.

There’s a cause the Lakers are in disarray and it begins on the prime with proprietor Jeanie Buss, who isn’t the visionary her father was.

The final couple of days have additionally confirmed longstanding suspicions about common supervisor Rob Pelinka’s {qualifications} to run the basketball operations division of the game’s most embellished franchise.

Instantly after a season-ending additional time victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night time, Vogel realized he was about to be fired from a tweet by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who was presumably tipped off by the Lakers’ entrance workplace. Pelinka didn’t converse to Vogel concerning the choice till Monday.

“When it comes to media stories which are speculative and unsourced, we don’t spend any of our time reacting to that kind of knowledge by way of how we make choices right here,” Pelinka mentioned.

Wasn’t Pelinka embarrassed by how this performed out? Didn’t Vogel deserve higher than to be told of his destiny by way of social media?

“He factually heard about our choice in an in-person assembly from me this morning,” Pelinka mentioned.

Pelinka mentioned he wasn’t “making an attempt to spin or sugarcoat” however went on to explain the practice wreck he oversaw in probably the most charitable phrases possible. The roster “didn’t work,” he mentioned. The season was “disappointing.”

Asking a participant to redefine the tradition of a whole group can be unreasonable below regular circumstances, however James wished this. The absence of management is what pressured the Lakers to grant James and agent Wealthy Paul the diploma of affect they take pleasure in.

James must be higher than to proceed trumpeting the championship he gained in a pandemic-shortened season when his three different years with the workforce had been abject failures. He has to embrace outsized obligations, simply because the likes of Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant did earlier than him. Now, greater than ever, he has to guide.