The Los Angeles Lakers have had a disastrous season. Finally, the team has been mercifully eliminated from the playoff picture after the hapless Lakers suffered their seventh consecutive loss on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.
Fans, experts and talk show hosts are all trying to perform mental acrobatics to wrap their brains around how LeBron James and the Lakers deteriorated into a global basketball atrocity after being picked to appear in the NBA Finals before the season started.
One of the super fans of King James, Shannon Sharpe who hosts the sports show “Undisputed,” is bracing himself for the mental beating he’s about to be subjected to by a legion of Lakers’ detractors.
And it begins. Today is going to be a long day 🤦🏾♂️ pic.twitter.com/4zyHdnw6vs
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) April 6, 2022
A confluence of detrimental factors wreaked havoc on the Lakers’ season before it started and emptied out into a sea of trouble: The roster was horribly constructed and ill-fitting; the Lakers had a porous defense that could not stop even the worst of offenses; constant injuries, particularly to superstar Anthony Davis who missed half the games this year and last; no outside shooters who could complement King James and AD’s offensive firepower; a Western Conference full of contenders who lusted after beating LeBron who remains the game’s biggest star (he received the most votes for the All-Star game again).
The Lakers may have just completed the arguably worst season in team history after losing to the Phoenix Suns 121-110 on Tuesday to fall 17 games below .500 with a record of 31-48. They are 4-17 since the All-Star break for a putrid .190 winning percentage, the worst ever in the Lakers’ storied existence after the halfway point.
Things have been so bad that even Magic Johnson, the most beloved Laker of all time, went on ESPN to place a lot of the blame on King James for choosing to trade for Russell Westbrook, who just completed the worst season of his career. Before the season, the Lakers management was going to trade for superstar Demar DeRozan who is having a career-best year for the Chicago Bulls — and who are, by the way, going to make the playoffs.
But James chose the ultra-expensive Westbrook instead of DeRozan. And acquiring Westbrook prevented the Lakers from keeping key players who play defense and can shoot, two things that Westbrook failed to do this season.
Magic Johnson believes LeBron James deserves some blame for the Lakers picking Russell Westbrook over DeMar DeRozan.
READ: https://t.co/06wWD4wRBO pic.twitter.com/GjLAXPG947
— Complex (@Complex) April 5, 2022
Lakers and LeBron haters are having a field day roasting the team and player for performing so abysmally, especially after King James warned the sports world that his squad would be a contender this year.
LeBron James has now missed the playoffs twice as many times as Michael Jordan.
— BossHogg (@6Hogg6) April 6, 2022
Magic Johnson woke up loving all the drama surrounding the Lakers and Lebron.
😆😂🤣😆😄🤣🤣💥#Lakers #LeBron #ESPN pic.twitter.com/BQF3tmpb03— xMoney17 (@fallensta7) April 6, 2022
Well, that’s all folks #lebron #westbrick #lakers #playoffs #taesworld86 #retweet pic.twitter.com/Ar28aRxKI2
— Taesworld86 (@taesworld86) April 6, 2022
The ENERGY tweet did not age well.
So #LeBron will hang up his feet this summer while the likes of #Spurs attempt a run in the play ins, the same play ins he derided last season.#Lakers #NBA pic.twitter.com/itCL4OVZNB
— Bayano Valy 🇲🇿 (@BayanoValy) April 6, 2022
We ain't spinning this; no alternative narratives will be accepted.
There's no silver linings; there's no he opened a school junk rebuttal…this is forever a #LeBronJames fiasco and it's forever on his record.#Kobe & #LA deserve better than #LeBron's lousy mediocrity. #NBA https://t.co/ZF5DBBQv5t
— Sammy Younan -28- (@mypalsammy) April 6, 2022
