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Anthony Davis Is Officially LeBron’s Best Teammate

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In honor of LeBron James’s fourth NBA championship—and his first with the Los Angeles Lakers—The Ringer’s J. Kyle Mann is here to rank King James’s five best teammates. From Anthony Davis to Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade to Kyrie Irving, Kyle breaks down how to succeed while playing with LeBron James.

How Lakers Turned Bad Headlines Into an NBA Title

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Fans love to obsess over the day-to-day news cycle around their favorite teams, and bad news usually dominates headlines. The Los Angeles Lakers had years of bad press surrounding their leadership turmoil and a perceived inability to land star players—and then LeBron James and Anthony Davis led them to this year’s championship. Ryen Russillo gives a brief history lesson on the last decade of the Lakers, and why the things fans get preoccupied with usually don’t matter. Presented by FanDuel Sportsbook.

This May Be Only the Beginning of LeBron’s Golden Years

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LeBron James versus Michael Jordan will be debated ad nauseam in the weeks (and years) to come. What people don’t mention enough in that debate is the simple fact that LeBron is still writing his legacy. We’re comparing one player whose career is over to one who just led the Los Angeles Lakers to a championship at 35 years old, in Year 17 in the NBA. There’s no end in sight for LeBron. He remains the best player in the league and he’s equipped to lead the Lakers with his playmaking even as he ages. Assuming good health, there are more individual accolades in his future, more leaderboards to climb, and possibly more rings, because the Lakers could get even better.

The Lakers proved that size still matters. Which means size will be necessary to get through LeBron and his partner in chasing titles, Anthony Davis. AD is a nightmare opponent in the modern game. Most bigs, even good ones like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, show certain flaws in certain playoff series, whether it’s an inability to defend the perimeter or play a variety of defensive styles.

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The Lakers can add players to retool, too. They had immense success this season with either JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard sharing the front court with Davis. McGee and Howard deserve credit for their defensive energy, rebounding, screening, and finishing. But let’s be honest: The Lakers can do better. Neither of them can reliably shoot jumpers, creating spacing issues, and they both got shredded defensively deeper into the playoffs. Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office also saw Butler get to the paint at will when the Heat went to shooters like Kelly Olynyk or Meyers Leonard at the 5.

The throwback, bruising center is nearing extinction, but that’s because the position has evolved to require a different skill set. Shooting has taken on a greater importance. Instead of McGee or Howard at center, imagine, say, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, or Aron Baynes. They bring comparable or better defensive ability, and far superior offense as shooters and passers. Some of them could end up being too expensive, but the Lakers will likely have the non-taxpayer midlevel exception to use to chase free agents.

The Lakers’ Record-Tying Title Is a Testament to Their Inevitability

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I suspect that the Lakers will soon move into sole possession of first place on the all-time title leaderboard and stay there. My reasoning is simple: The NBA’s modern era is defined by the biggest stars, and those stars often want to play for the Lakers. The Lakers’ three-peat in the early 2000s happened because Shaq signed with L.A. as a free agent. (Shaq later signed in Boston too, but on the veteran minimum contract after finishing dismal stints with the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers.) In 2018, the Lakers signed LeBron, and they traded for Davis a year later with the expectation that AD will lead them to championships after LeBron’s career wanes. (It will eventually wane, right?) I guess the Lakers would be in trouble if Davis doesn’t re-sign, especially given how much they gave up to get him. I mean, Lakers fans haven’t figured out what number to give Giannis on his Photoshopped Lakers jerseys. Folks, no. 34 is retired!

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And then there are the Lakers, a perpetual homing beacon for the sport’s best players. The power of the Lakers isn’t that they’re always good, or that they’ll land every free agent. It’s that they don’t need to play the same game as everybody else. Everybody else needs to be right all the time to win; the Lakers just need an occasional signature. Any other team that consistently based its strategy around “just hoping the best player in the world will sign with us in free agency” is doomed. (Trust me, I’m a Knicks fan.) But the Lakers know they have a better shot than anybody else. It’s just easier for the Lakers to pop back up. The Lakers are always looming as a championship contender, even if they’re not far removed from breaking the bank for Timofey Mozgov.

This is the premise of Lakers Exceptionalism, the idea that the Lakers have a fundamental advantage over everybody else. To believe in Lakers Exceptionalism is not exactly a compliment to the Lakers. It has nothing to do with moral or intellectual superiority. It merely means that even when their hull is full of holes, they are unsinkable. For fans of the other 29 teams, the Lakers are evidence that sometimes supervillains are the ones who get to be invincible. For fans of the Lakers, all that matters is that they’re no. 1—and as soon as they get championship no. 18, they officially will be.

Lakers dominate Heat for first title in a decade

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This championship was historic in many respects. The Lakers became the first team in league history to go undefeated when taking a lead into the fourth quarter, going 57-0 between the regular season and the playoffs. They were also the first franchise to earn the No. 1 seed following a five-year postseason absence.

L.A. also endured the unprecedented scenario of a restart in an NBA bubble at Walt Disney World Resort to conclude a season stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Los Angeles spent 95 days in the bubble, going 3-5 in the tune-up and seeding games before defeating the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets in five games each and the Heat in six.

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“I think Kobe and Gianna have guided this team the entire year,” Pelinka said. “Kobe’s voice is in my head. Always. Every day. Every minute. And I think to be able to — for LeBron and AD and Vogel and myself and Jeanie [Buss], for us to be able to win this championship doesn’t take away the sting of the loss. But it helps us add to their legacy. Their legacy will last forever. It will impact lives around the world in positive ways.”

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“Rob Pelinka really made me feel good tonight reaching out after the Lakers won the NBA Championship,” Johnson tweeted. “It means the world to me because I know he’s in the middle of celebrating with all of the Lakers players, coaches, and Jeanie Buss he didn’t have to!”