After a segment on his latest podcast episode, NBA analyst Jason Whitlock went viral for a rather wild comparison. In response to the news that the Lakers are open to drafting Bronny to appease King James this summer, Whitlock compared the relationship to a toxic marriage that tries to fix their problems with a baby.
"With the league's all-time leading scorer, the Lakers have advanced past today's biggest stage once in six years. This is a base marriage. It's showing all the signs. When spouses realize, 'Hey, this marriage is going south,' what do they do? One of the parties will go, 'You know what will fix this? A baby,'" Whitlock said. "A professional sports team is so desperate to keep a 39-year-old superstar athlete, whose clearly at the end of his rope, ... they're willing to make his son a Make-A-Wish kid in the NBA. That's the key to salvaging this bad marriage."
With LeBron James now in the final stage of his career, he's made it known that one of his main priorities is playing with his son, Bronny, who will be eligible for the Draft this summer. While Bronny is projected to be a mid-second-round pick, at best, the Lakers are reportedly open to drafting him with their pick to appease LeBron and keep him satisfied for the final stretch of his career.
The whole thing reeks of desperation for a franchise that has done little to improve its situation since winning the title in 2020. After letting go of many of the players who made that run possible, the Lakers gambled everything on the Russell Westbrook trade, and it cost them greatly in the end.
Now, after years of failure, the situation has become borderline toxic for LeBron and the Lakers as they search for any answers on how to improve. So far, their only solution is to draft Bronny, but it will likely take much more than that to salvage this Lakers team.
LeBron James Refuses To Reveal If He Will Re-Sign With The Lakers
After six seasons with the Lakers, it was widely believed that LeBron James was content to spend the rest of his career with this franchise. But now, there is some doubt that he won't consider another team when his contract expires in July.
With the Lakers still far away from West elites like the Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Thunder, they'd need a miracle offseason to move them into contender status next year. With LeBron James going on 40, he won't be able to carry them like he's been doing and the roster will need to be better all around for them to have any kind of a chance at improvement.
So if James wants the best chance of winning, moving from the Lakers and to a team like the Warriors, Cavaliers, or Miami Heat is probably the way to go and it would allow him to go out as a champion.
Regarding the Lakers, we know that LeBron has been eerily silent on his future with them this summer and it seems that even he's not sure what will come next after their first-round elimination. But unless major changes are made, the Lakers can expect the same result next year and LeBron may not want to endure that anymore.
Either way, with the Lakers in a bad way, it seems nobody on the franchise is safe from scrutiny, and the culture of the team itself has turned toxic as the finger of blame gets pointed in various directions.
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