Jay Skapinac: “LeBron James has done it once again. Failed miserably yet again in the playoffs. Almost an inconceivable amount of futility for a guy who he himself claims to be ‘the greatest player of all time.’ He has gone out of his way to systematically destroy the competitive balance of the NBA in a desperate attempt to stack the decks and surround himself with as much talent as is humanly possible for his clamoring and adoring front offices.

Yet in spite of it all, James has bowed out in the first round after winning just a single game in these 2024 NBA playoffs. The self-proclaimed ‘King’ has come up short 17 times in his 21-year career and counting. But it gets even worse once you dig into it since leaving his pathetic ‘Leastern’ Conference perch that he dominated for the first 15 years of his career. The NBA's junior varsity conference helped LeBron to produce nine of his ten career Finals appearances, but once he made the jump to the big boy conference out west – yeah, it hasn't been such smooth sailing for old LeBron. In now six seasons with the Lakers while playing with an elite all-time great and top 75 all-time player in Anthony Davis, James has made just one Finals appearance. Which was, of course, the NBA's sham exhibition tournament disguised as an NBA championship held at the Disney campuses in Orlando, Florida way back in 2020. Since that season, the Lakers have won two playoff series total under LeBron's expert ‘GOAT’ guidance.

This season in the five-game gentleman's sweep, LeBron had AD balling the hell out, dropping 28 points, 16 rebounds , and 4 assists per game on 63% shooting, to cap a season for him that will see him make an All-NBA second-team selection and an All-NBA defensive team.

Funny, I don't remember Kobe Bryant ever winning just one game with a teammate dropping 28 and 16 a night, and come to think of it, I don't remember Michael Jordan ever even playing with a teammate performing at these levels. It was all good enough to win exactly one game against a banged up team with one All-Star.

And oh, sure, this will be presented as if it were some kind of ‘David vs. Goliath’ showdown against an unstoppable Nuggets force. A team that has only one player who in their principal eight-man rotation has ever been selected to a single All-Star Game. Their second-best player, Jamal Murray, was significantly physically compromised coming into the series on the heels of missing 7 of Denver's final 10 games as he tried to heal from the myriad of lower body injuries that caused him to play in just 59 games this season. He then aggravated the injury in a series where he was pretty obviously a shell of himself, shooting just 40% from the field and 29% from the three-point line, while averaging 23.5 points per game. Yet the boot lickers and jock sniffers in the mainstream garbage dump of a media are painting LeBron as some kind of a sympathetic figure that predictably, as with his entire career, just didn't have enough health. Yet no team dominated the first four games of their first round series as much as the Lakers, who led for 71% of the minutes played in those first four games.

Despite a plethora of contributions, yet again the alleged ‘GOAT’ just couldn't get them over the finish line. And now here we are yet again left to ponder just how we can get LeBron more help. There is already rampant speculation that the coach killer extraordinaire has already axed Darvin Ham on the heels of some petulant baby-like tantrums directed at Ham throughout the course of the series. Which means James will be heading in the direction of now his ninth NBA head coach in his never-ending quest to have every team system built solely around HIM so that he can continue amassing his all-important hollow box scores.

Sources close to the Lakers front office have them interested in pursuing Trae Young, the Atlanta guard who finished second in the NBA in assists per game this season , while also averaging 26 points a night. This, of course, because Anthony Davis, who just turned only 31 in March, and will be coming off of an All-NBA and All NBA defensive selection this season just isn't enough help. While D'Angelo Russell, who is himself coming off of an 18-point and six assists per game season in 76 games played, clearly must be upgraded.

All of this hoop jumping and kowtowing all for some spoiled little brat who can't even commit to the organization, as he refused to answer that question on whether or not this game was his final in a Lakers jersey. LeBron though, doesn't seem headed out of LA anytime soon, as quite frankly, both of these two entities need one another.

The prospect of returning to his beloved ‘Leastern’ Conference likely does probably seem appealing while the Western Conference promises to only get more difficult next season. His BFF and agent Rich Paul is already teasing the prospect of an additional 2-3 years for LeBron. Just where exactly that will be still remains to be seen. But one thing is abundantly clear as he has now completed 21 years of a career... Absolutely nothing has changed about the media's darling, and the most coddled, protected, and overrated athlete in NBA history.”

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