LeBron James is not the first superstar to choose to join the LA Lakers amid a legendary career. In the early 1970s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar famously requested a trade from his successful Milwaukee Bucks to either the Lakers or the New York Knicks, citing sociocultural needs unmet in Wisconsin. In the 1990s, Orlando Magic wunderkind Shaquille O’Neal decided to sign with the Lakers as a free agent.
Both legends were younger than LeBron when moving to LA: Kareem’s first Lakers season was at age 28, and Shaq was just 24. LeBron, on the other hand, is 34, which is something important to keep in mind. While we think of James as ageless and eternal, he is as close to Karl Malone’s age when joining the Lakers as he is to Kareem’s, and closer to Malone’s than Shaq’s.
We know how LeBron’s first season in paradise has gone: the Lakers will miss the playoffs, continuing a brutal drought. LeBron will almost assuredly still make one of the three All-NBA teams, but LA will finish below .500, and this will look like a real bizarre moment in James’ otherwise unimpeachable career.
Is this normal? How did Kareem and Shaq’s Lakers do when they first arrived?
Kareem’s first season failure
Well first of all, “this,” as in the Lakers missing the playoffs, is not normal. This will be the team’s sixth straight season without the playoffs. Prior to that, the Lakers had missed the postseason five times in their 65-year history, going all the way back to Minneapolis. So just keep in mind that the state of the Lakers is usually much better than what we’re experiencing now. “This” is not normal.
That said, Kareem arrived to a team in despair. The 1974-75 Lakers went 30-52 and missed the postseason, in what was the franchise’s worst season ever and only the second season in which it failed to qualify. The team’s biggest names — Gail Goodrich and Connie Hawkins — were in their 30s, and the key young players were guys like Jim Price and Lucius Allen. Not exactly Magic Johnson and James Worthy.
Kareem arrived in the summer of 1975, and the Lakers did immediately improve ... to 40-42. They missed the playoffs again, though, even as Kareem won the NBA MVP award and was named to both the All-Defense and All-NBA teams. Abdul-Jabbar never missed the playoffs again, and won five championships with the Lakers, plus two more NBA MVPs and a Finals MVP.
But yes, Kareem’s first season as a Laker was a failure for the franchise. Kareem’s mere arrival did not turn LA back into an immediate contender, even though Abdul-Jabbar played at an MVP level (as evidenced by his MVP award).
Shaq’s mixed bag arrival
Shaq, as noted earlier, was even younger when he arrived in LA, a full decade younger than LeBron upon arrival. But the Lakers were in a much better place: they were coming off of a 53-win season, albeit having been booted from the playoffs in the first round in 1995-96. Shaq joined as a free agent in 1996, the same summer an 18-year-old Kobe Bryant was drafted by LA.
O’Neal led the Lakers to a slightly better season (56 wins) in Year 1, and a first-round playoff win over the Blazers. On an individual level, it was one of the worst seasons of Shaq’s prime: he missed 30 games due to injury and made just third team All-NBA. There was a real adjustment period for Shaq and for the Lakers, who had to make some roster changes (and eventually a coaching change) to best use him.
And even then, the Lakers didn’t reach the level they grew accustomed to with Kareem and Magic — winning titles — until Kobe emerged in the early 2000s as an MVP-caliber co-star. It was only in Shaq’s fourth season with the Lakers that he won his first championship.
LeBron James has risen above winning
Calling LeBron James the best basketball player in the world is both true and insufficient. It’s like referring to Hercules as antiquity’s strongest hero. It’s technically accurate. It checks out. But it wildly understates what defines our protagonist.
The Lakers maintained their success when Shaq arrived, but didn’t much improve upon it for a few years, quite similar to how it took Kareem’s Lakers a few years to adjust.
The LeBron corollary
LeBron’s Lakers started in a much deeper hole with the long playoff drought. LeBron, we must continue to emphasize, is also much older than either Kareem or Shaq were when they arrived. There is far less runway to use to reach take-off velocity for LeBron’s Lakers.
It’s also worth noting that neither Kareem or Shaq won titles in LA until precocious young co-stars — Magic and Kobe, respectively — came of age and helped hoist the Lakers to that level. Does LeBron have a future star like that on the roster in Brandon Ingram or Lonzo Ball? Is that potential co-star Anthony Davis?
Or is the NBA too different from past generations to work like this? Is LeBron too old to follow the path of the legends before him? Is the Lakers’ front office too inexperienced and overmatched to make this work as it eventually worked for Kareem and Shaq’s Lakers?
We’ll see. But it’s worth noting that if history is any guide, the Lakers usually find a way.
