Jason Smith and Doug Gottlieb (Filling in for Dan Patrick) spoke with NBA insider Ric Bucher to discuss where the Lakers stand after their loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. One thing Jason Smith has observed from LeBron James is that he still seems like a hired gun and the Lakers are still at arm's length as far as his overall dedication. Smith brings up the point about how in a recent interview around the trade deadline LeBron James said:
"There’s nothing I need to get in this league that I don’t already have. Everything else for me is just like icing on the cake." I love the process of everything I go through to be able to compete every single night and put teams in position to compete for championships. But there’s nothing I’m chasing or feel like I need to end my career on."
Ric Bucher responded saying the following:
I'm leery of buying totally into anything LeBron says at any given time. I believe if you go back to his decision to come to LA (this is the prevailing feeling around the league), he didn't come there to play for the Lakers. He didn't come there to win championships because if he did, as he has in every other place, there would have been prerequisites for him coming...He's always held and utilized his leverage to get the team structured the way that he wanted. He didn't do any of that this time.
Ric Bucher explains more in the audio below.