Sports
How LeBron James, Darvin Ham and the Lakers reached a critical offseason crossroads
LeBron James and his Lakers teammates were overcome with disbelief. They rushed to the monitor on the scorer’s table in Minnesota to see the play in dispute.
They pleaded and pointed at the zoomed-in image of the toe of James’ right sneaker and the blue three-point line it might or might not have touched.
James was sure he was behind it. Replay officials were not.
The shot, which would’ve tied the score and probably forced overtime, was ruled a two. They lost.
On Dec. 30 in Minnesota, the Lakers felt they were an inch away from a win, so close to some salvation after a brutal month.
“Stevie Wonder can see that, champ,” James said after the loss. “Over there in the replay center or whatever, somebody over there eating a ham sandwich, or somebody made the call.”
With the Lakers’ season over, a frame-by-frame examination of what happened isn’t necessary.
“Your eyes will tell you,” said one Lakers insider not authorized to publicly discuss team operations.
There was no need to enlarge or enhance, no reason to squint. The Lakers were good, maybe even close to better than that.
Yet they weren’t championship good and maybe not even contender good, a precious season gone with a first-round playoff exit and changes likely on the way.
Too many one-sided minutes, too much bad injury luck. An aging star. A controversial coach. An in-season tournament title and a midseason crisis.
It never was going to end with a trip to the NBA Finals.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham, left, and forward LeBron James share a laugh after Anthony Davis (not pictured) celebrated a three-point basket.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Now that the Lakers’ season has ended, the impossible autopsy begins.
How good could the team could have been had they been healthier, had their two primary on-ball defenders — Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent — been healthy and in the regular rotation? How good would they have been if their coach, Darvin Ham, abandoned reliability and balance to lean into talent earlier by simply putting his best players on the court to start games?
Who is to blame? Who gets credit? Who returns? Who goes?
The questions start with James, who somehow established new highs in his 21st NBA season, playing 71 games (the most he has played in a season for the Lakers) and shooting 41% from three-point range. He averaged 25.7 points, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds at 39 years old. No other player has done that after age 30.
He has done it five times.
James can turn down $51.4-million this offseason and exercise his player option, making him an unrestricted free agent. If he sought a max deal elsewhere, he’d likely be paid more than $55 million per season.
This season answered questions about his durability and effectiveness as he neared 40 (he’ll hit that mark next December), but his consistency on the defensive end was an issue.
Asked about his future before the All-Star Game, James praised the Lakers while giving himself wiggle room.
“I don’t know. I am a Laker, and I am happy and been very happy being a Laker the last six years, and hopefully it stays that way,” he said . “But I don’t have the answer to how long it is or which uniform I’ll be in. I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it’s coming.”
He’s not the only Laker with a decision.
D’Angelo Russell can opt out, leaving $18.7 million on the table. Up until the postseason, that seemed like a lock, though it’s hard to know if his struggles against the Denver Nuggets will change that calculus.
Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish also have player options for next season. Spencer Dinwiddie and Taurean Prince are unrestricted free agents and Max Christie is headed to restricted free agency.
The Lakers will pick 17th and 55th in the upcoming draft, though their first-round pick could end up with New Orleans. Insiders believe the Lakers, though, will end up keeping that pick while sending their 2025 first-round choice to New Orleans to finish the Anthony Davis trade.
Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt has his layup contested by Clippers guard Norman Powell during a game in January. Vanderbilt played in only 29 games this season.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
After the Lakers were torched by Memphis’ Ja Morant for 28 points in the third quarter of a loss in February 2023, one player looked to Ham.
“That guy,” the player said, “needs to be better.”
In-game adjustments were slow that season — Morant exploited that. But a strong postseason helped the Lakers move past Memphis and Golden State before they ran into the Nuggets, the eventual champions, and were swept in the conference finals.
Scouts who questioned Ham during the season were impressed with his game plans in the postseason, the Lakers a step ahead of both the Grizzlies and the Warriors in the first two rounds. Ham and the Lakers’ run deep into the playoffs earned him and the roster a chance to run things back. Continuity was prioritized, the Lakers adding around the edges.
But the first signs of trouble for the revamped Lakers appeared in the preseason, Ham having one of his biggest decisions made for him with injuries to Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura.
Vanderbilt’s preseason was cut short because of a heel injury, and Hachimura had the first of his three multigame absences, this one because of a concussion.
It meant Ham turned to Prince, a player he previously coached in Atlanta, as a starting wing. Vincent, signed for his toughness, defense and firepower, quickly was sidelined because of a knee injury.
In a blink, the two best perimeter defenders, Vanderbilt and Vincent, were unavailable.
Nine games into the season, Ham moved Austin Reaves to the bench — a move that was unpopular inside his locker room. Reaves, coming off a strong summer for Team USA, was slowed by a hip injury early and struggled defensively (he showed improvement in the second half of the season).
Lakers guard Austin Reaves steals the ball from Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards during a game in March at Crypto.com Arena.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Reaves stayed on the bench, with Ham using Reddish as a starter, hoping to unlock the former lottery pick as a defensive specialist. Through the lineup changes, the Lakers cruised to win the first in-season tournament, another sign they, and Ham, were maybe at their best when the stakes were high.
But immediately after the tournament, the season threatened to go off the rails. The schedule was cruel, the Lakers on the road for most of a month while the quality of opponents spiked. Emotional and physical fatigue intersected as the first trade rumors surfaced.
Desperate to establish more defensive identity, Ham would use Reddish, Prince and Vanderbilt as starters — meaning three key members from last season’s team, Reaves, Russell and Hachimura, all were coming off the bench.
Russell’s December put him squarely in trade talks, with some people involved with the Lakers wondering how much better they would’ve been had they landed Mike Conley instead at the 2023 deadline trade that transformed their season.
Ham’s job security would be called into question as the team entered 2024 with the good vibes from the in-season tournament gone. After a so-so January ended with the Lakers getting blown out on back-to-back nights in Houston and Atlanta, James posted an hourglass emoji on social media, a reminder that his patience was waning.
He and Anthony Davis sat out the next game, in Boston, and the Lakers pulled off an incredible win. Vanderbilt, though, suffered a major foot injury and sat out the rest of the season.
Insiders believe Vanderbilt had been headed for a reunion with a starting group that began 13 playoff games the season before. But because of injuries and Ham’s preferences, that five didn’t start a single game together during the 2023-24 season.
Without Vanderbilt, Ham committed to a new path, with Hachimura, Russell and Reaves all starting — the Lakers finally landing on a starting five that had roots in last season’s playoff run.
By then, Russell had emerged as the Lakers’ most consistent third option alongside James and Davis, staring down weeks of trade rumors to set a team record for three-pointers in a season.
That group reenergized the Lakers’ season, the team going 22-10 after inserting Hachimura into the starting five.
“With my craft and my talent on the floor, I’ve always felt like I was capable of doing things,” Russell said after a game-winner against Milwaukee. “Getting hot makes it a little more exciting throughout a game. Off the floor, obviously, you know what I’ve been through. Public humiliation has done nothing but molded me into the killer that ya’ll see today. And, um, I never lack confidence. I never fear confrontation. I want all the smoke.”
While the team surged and ended the regular season 12 games over .500, some within the team and organization often wondered how much better the record would’ve been had the Lakers made those lineup changes sooner.
The Lakers now enter the offseason unsure of what they were and what they can be — and, in the end, that’s probably what you’re in for with a team in their position.
With James still able to perform and earn maximum money, there is no time for patience and no prioritization for development. Never has a player been more “win now” than James at this stage.
Those with knowledge of the Lakers situation who were not authorized to speak publicly said that after a quiet trade deadline, team officials regularly discussed the possibility of trading three first-round picks this offseason to add a player who would provide a bigger impact. Atlanta guards Dejounte Murray and Trae Young are among the possibilities.
The Lakers could unbundle those picks and use them in multiple transactions to try to improve their supporting cast.
James’ presence certainly will play a major role in how they operate, as will that of Davis, whom the team signed to a long-term extension before this season.
As the organization tries to make sense of the season it just had, it will have to wrestle with a first-round loss in which the Lakers led at halftime in all five games. It’ll have to deal with the knowledge that the Lakers led for more minutes than they trailed, that the smallest mistakes had the biggest impact.
In a lot of ways, the end was a lot like that shot in Minnesota.
The Lakers were so close. Yet close for this team at this moment isn’t anywhere near good enough.
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Russell Wilson and Sean Payton spent just one NFL season together, but tension lingered after a rocky year.
And it appears the tension that built up from that tumultuous stretch continues to linger.
Wilson’s interview on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, recorded before last month’s Super Bowl between Seattle and New England, recently resurfaced.
In the interview, Wilson doubled down on his October comment labeling Payton “classless,” saying he felt slighted by his former coach’s remarks.
Head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos talks to quarterback Russell Wilson on the sideline during an NFL preseason football game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium Aug. 11, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
“[When] you’ve been on the same side or this and that, and I got the same amount of rings as you got, meaning Sean, right?” said Wilson, who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks as Payton did coaching for the New Orleans Saints.
“I got a lot of respect for him as a play-caller, this and that, but to take a shot, I don’t like. I don’t think it’s necessary, you know, I mean, especially when I’m not even on your own team anymore. So, for me, there’s a point in time where you have to, I’ve realized, I’ve stayed quiet for so long. There’s a there’s a time and place where I’m not.
“I know who I am as a competitor, as a warrior, as a champion, too, and, you know, I’ve beaten Sean, too. You know, like we’ve been on the same place and the same thing. And so, it’s not a matter of disrespect. Just don’t disrespect me.”
Sean Payton and Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos during an a game against the Minnesota Vikings at Empower Field at Mile High Nov. 19, 2023, in Denver, Colo. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
After a rocky one-year stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024, Wilson joined the New York Giants last offseason. However, he was relegated to a backup role after just three games.
Rookie Jaxson Dart quickly showed promise once he had the chance to start, but his season was briefly derailed by injury. Jameis Winston — not Wilson — stepped in for Dart in a handful of games. Dart threw three touchdowns in a Week 7 matchup with the Broncos, nearly pulling off an upset in what was eventually a close loss.
After the game, Payton said Dart provided a “spark” to the Giants’ offense.
“I was talking to [Giants owner] John Mara not too long ago, and I said, ‘We were hoping that that change would have happened long after our game,’” Payton said.
The New York Giants’ Russell Wilson attempts to escape a sack by Dallas Cowboys defensive end James Houston (53) in the first half of a game Sept. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Payton also said the Broncos would have faced less of a challenge had Wilson been under center.
“Classless … but not surprised,” Wilson responded in a social media post. “Didn’t realize you’re still bounty hunting 15+ years later though the media.”
Despite last season’s struggles and chatter about his football future, Wilson does not appear ready to call it quits in 2026.
“I wanna play a few more years for sure,” he said. “I think, for me, I’ve always had the vision of getting to 40, at least. I think the game is different. Quarterbacks, we get hit. It’s not, you know, we get hit hard, but … there’s certain rules. I mean, back in the day when I started, bro, it was you just get [clobbered].
“I mean, so I feel like the game allows you to, you know, live a little longer, I guess. I feel healthy. I feel great. But I think, more than anything else is, do you love the game? Do you love studying? Do you love the passion for it all? Do you love the process? Do you love the practice? Do you love — everybody loves the winning part of it, but it’s process. There’s a journey that you got to be obsessed with. And that part I’m obsessed with.”
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The early rounds of the BNP Paribas Open began Wednesday, with top seeds slated to start play Friday during the 12-day ATP and WTPA Master 1000 tournament.
A busy stretch of the tennis season reaches another gear at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the second largest outdoor tennis stadium in the world.
While many consider it the “fifth Grand Slam” because of its elite player field, amenities and equal prize money for men and women, professionals acknowledge the tournament is part of a stressful stretch on the tennis calendar.
Indian Wells is followed by the Miami Open, another two-week Master 1000 tournament. The tour stops are known as the “Sunshine Double.”
Some players made the short trip from Indian Wells to Las Vegas this past weekend to participate in the MGM Grand Slam, an exhibition designed to help players ramp up for back-to-back tournaments.
American Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot–11 pro, said managing fatigue after a series of tournaments before hitting Indian Wells has altered his practice and play in exhibition matches, including a loss to 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca in Las Vegas.
“Normally in any kind of competition, you get excited and play with a pressure point … but you don’t feel this when you are practicing,” Opelka said.
“I was trying to feel like this a few days ago while practicing with … [Tommy Paul,] but instead we got tired and hungry. … That usually doesn’t happen. We just decided to stop and go to eat somewhere.”
Paul said despite the decision to cut practice short, he feels fresh for the upcoming events.
“I started the year pretty well and for Americans, we are excited for the Sunshine Double,” Paul said.
Casper Rudd lost to Opelka during the first round of the Las Vegas exhibition. The Norwegian also lost a week ago during the first round of the Acapulco Open, falling to Chinese qualifier Yibing Wu in straight sets.
Rudd said he felt “extremely tired” after the Australian Open in January.
Rancho Palo Verdes resident Taylor Fritz, ranked No. 7 in the world, said the best way to prepare yourself for grueling tour schedule is “putting [in] the time, work and repetition.”
“… Be there, be focused on the quality that you are doing,” said Fritz, a 28-year-old who won the Indian Wells title in 2022.
While some players are guarding against burnout, others struggled to even reach California. Some players who live in Dubai, including Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, have to contend with closed airspace triggered by the U.S. and Israel bombing Iran.
The ATP announced Wednesday that, “the vast majority of players who were in Dubai have successfully departed today on selected flights.”
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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