LeBron James said Lakers' expectations were unfair

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Do you have any comments for the Layup Lines team? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now here is Prince J. Grimes.

What’s up, hoops fans. It’s your boy Prince here for Layup Lines. And today seems like a good day to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers, fresh off one of the most interesting media days in the NBA this week.

The biggest topic of conversation was probably LeBron and Bronny James, who had some fun and entertaining times together. It was incredibly cool to see a father-son duo do a media day together for the first time. We knew James’ redemption was coming, but it seems more real than ever as the stories about their training battles continue to trickle out.

LeBron is even creating some decent hype for his son, saying Bronny looks better than he did as a rookie. It’s a lie, but what else do you expect from a father? Regardless of how Bronny looks, it will be an amazing moment when they take the floor together in a real game for the first time.

Another thing that caught my attention, however, was the expectations James refused to place on the team as a whole. In fact, he said he didn’t have one for the Lakers.

“I have no expectations,” James said via ESPN. “And it’s unfair to put expectations on each other right now. The only thing we can count on for each other is how we train and come to work every day.”

I want to be fair to LeBron and the Lakers. Because if I were asked today to rank the best teams in the Western Conference, I would pass at least four before even considering the Lakers. BetMGM has six teams with better odds of winning the West.

But such a statement rings hollow coming from James. Championship expectations followed him throughout his career. Those expectations have only grown stronger as he has established himself as one of the top two players of all time. And once he joined the Lakers — the team with the second-most titles in NBA history — those expectations were cemented.

It’s championship or bust. The day James’ team is relieved of this pressure will be the day he retires.

Related: Savannah James Playing Bronny on NBA 2K Is Heartwarming

Is it fair that these expectations continue to follow someone who turns 40 this season? That’s a good question. But the next question would be why James is still playing.

Bronny is one of the reasons. But I’d be surprised if LeBron wasn’t always obsessed with winning. There’s a reason the Lakers moved on from Darvin Ham after two winning seasons and a trip to the Conference Finals, and replaced him with James’ podcast partner JJ Redick.

James hopes to compete for championships. When he no longer feels like he can do that, he will stop playing. His attempt to calm outside expectations will not work. We can see through this.

Knicks completed KAT trade with help from FIBA and EuroLeague

The New York Knicks’ trade for Karl-Anthony Towns is finally complete, Athletics was reported on Tuesday, and it’s absolutely fascinating for more than one reason.

There’s obviously the basketball component, which involves two contenders, the Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves, making big changes to teams that had successful playoff runs last season. But there are also the mechanics of the job, which were by no means easy to implement. It took three teams, including the Charlotte Hornets, and a whole different league and a whole different continent to do it.

No, really. The Knicks had to include Duane Washington Jr. in the deal to make the money work, but Washington doesn’t play in the NBA. He signed for a team in Serbia. So the Knicks needed cooperation.

FTW’s Mike Sykes explained it all here:

“As for the NBA, the Knicks still owned Washington’s rights because he played for the team on a two-way deal last season and the league does not recognize non-NBA contracts when considering a player’s free agency status He was still eligible to be part of a sign-and-trade deal.

The problem is that he is under contract and has already played a few games for Partizan this year.

So basically for the trade to work, Washington had to break his deal with Partizan and become a Knick for a day, only to become a Hornet for a day and then get waived. »

Read Sykes’ description of the situation. It’s wild, but it’s been done. Hopefully someone will get a championship out of it.

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Knicks completed KAT trade with help from FIBA ​​and EuroLeague

Filming

Knicks completed KAT trade with help from FIBA and EuroLeague