{"id":168592,"date":"2018-07-01T23:31:35","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T03:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=168592"},"modified":"2018-07-01T23:31:35","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T03:31:35","slug":"la-bron-james-agrees-to-4-year-contract-with-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/01\/la-bron-james-agrees-to-4-year-contract-with-lakers\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Bron: James agrees to 4 year contract with Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James<\/a>
James isn’t planning any more comments and there won’t be a welcoming press conference or celebration in Los Angeles, a person familiar with his plans said Sunday night on the condition of anonymity. (Photo<\/a>: LeBron James\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CLEVELAND \u2014\u00a0LeBron\u00a0James\u00a0is leaving home for Hollywood and an iconic team.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers have a new superstar \u2014 L.A.-Bron.<\/p>\n

The four-time NBA MVP announced Sunday night that he has agreed to a four-year, $154 million contract with the Lakers, joining one of the league’s most storied franchises and switching conferences to try and dethrone the Golden State Warriors and grow his own legacy.<\/p>\n

For the second time in his career,\u00a0James\u00a0is saying goodbye to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who drafted the teenage sensation from Akron in 2003 and have to be satisfied with winning just one title in the 11 years they had him.<\/p>\n

Unlike his two previous forays in free agency,\u00a0James\u00a0did not drag out his decision and made the announcement less than 24 hours after NBA free agency opened.<\/p>\n

This Summer of\u00a0LeBron\u00a0was barely a fling.<\/p>\n

His management agency, Klutch Sports Group, announced his agreement with the Lakers with a simple, short release. It was a stark contrast from eight years ago, when a poorly conceived TV special to announce his departure from Cleveland backfired and damaged\u00a0James’ image.<\/p>\n

James\u00a0isn’t planning any more comments and there won’t be a welcoming press conference or celebration in Los Angeles, a person familiar with his plans said Sunday night on the condition of anonymity.\u00a0James\u00a0will make his next public comments on July 30 in Akron when he opens a public school started by his family foundation.<\/p>\n

It was all different this time.<\/p>\n

The game’s biggest star will now lead a young Lakers team \u2014 run by Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson \u2014 that has been overmatched in recent years while rebuilding. But the Lakers will instantly rise with\u00a0James, a three-time champion who after being swept by the Warriors in this year’s NBA Finals said he is still driven and very much in \u201cchampionship mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers’ rich legacy is something that appealed to\u00a0James\u00a0and it wasn’t long after his announcement that he heard from Kobe Bryant, who won five titles during 20 seasons with Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the family ?KingJames,\u201d Bryant said on Twitter . \u201c#lakers4life #striveforgreatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

James\u00a0and Bryant were Olympic teammates and there has been a perceived rivalry between the pair of alpha males. They’re now linked like never before and if\u00a0James\u00a0wants to prepare for his eventual life after basketball, who better to learn from than Johnson, who has made a fortune as a business entrepreneur, or Bryant, an Academy Award winner.<\/p>\n

The massive Los Angeles market will also provide\u00a0James\u00a0with a grander platform for his philanthropy and social activism. He already owns two homes in Southern California and has a film production company.<\/p>\n

This is the third time in eight years\u00a0James\u00a0has changed teams. After bolting from Cleveland in 2010, he returned in an emotional homecoming four years later, determined to make the Cavs champions. The 33-year-old had previously said he wanted to finish his career in Ohio, and although he’s leaving again, Cavs fans are more forgiving after he ended the city’s 52-year sport title drought in 2016.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the announcement, which came in a surprising manner,\u00a0James\u00a0posted a three-photo tribute to Cleveland fans on his Instagram account.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Northeast Ohio for an incredible four seasons,\u201d\u00a0James\u00a0wrote. \u201cThis will always be home.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there will always be a portion of Cleveland fans disappointed that\u00a0James\u00a0left again and that he wouldn’t give the Cavs a longer commitment. His deal with the Lakers is his longest since he signed for six years with Miami in 2010.<\/p>\n

James\u00a0informed the Cavs on Friday that he was not exercising his $35.6 million option and becoming a free agent. While in Los Angeles following a family vacation, he spoke to Cavs general manager Koby Altman moments after free agency opened on Sunday, and it appears that was more a courtesy than a chance for Cleveland to make one last pitch.<\/p>\n

Cleveland’s roster was exposed during this year’s finals, and\u00a0James\u00a0may not have seen a way for it to improve enough to win a fourth title.<\/p>\n

The decision to join the Lakers was not a surprise to his innermost circle, with one person telling AP that it had been presumed for some time that he was headed to Los Angeles next season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one authorized that detail be released publicly.<\/p>\n

James\u00a0gave Cleveland something to remember in his final season. He played in all 82 regular-season games and then somehow carried a team that underwent several transformations to a fourth straight conference title and matchup against the Warriors.<\/p>\n

As has been the case in the past,\u00a0James\u00a0didn’t have enough help as the Cavs were swept, dropping him to 3-6 in the NBA Finals \u2014 a record sometimes used to compare him to Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n

His stay with the Cavaliers will best be remembered for 2016, when he rallied the Cavs from a 3-1 deficit in the finals to stun the Warriors.\u00a0James\u00a0helped seal a Game 7 win with a chase-down block of Andre Iguodala, the signature moment of a career that has shown no signs of decay.<\/p>\n

With the Lakers,\u00a0James\u00a0will be playing in the Western Conference for the first time and just down the Pacific Coast Highway from the Warriors, the team that has stymied him three times in the past four finals.<\/p>\n

The chance to play for one of America’s most storied franchises is a new challenge for\u00a0James, who prides himself on knowing the game’s history. In Los Angeles, championships are the standard and he’ll feel new pressure in upholding the legacies of Johnson, Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West and other Lakers greats.<\/p>\n

It’s now his turn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014\u00a0LeBron\u00a0James\u00a0is leaving home for Hollywood and an iconic team. The Los Angeles Lakers have a new superstar \u2014 L.A.-Bron. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":168593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[9936,4897],"class_list":["post-168592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","mauthors-tom-withers","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}