Trevor Ariza is pushing back on the easy LeBron James criticism that keeps following him around, especially the idea that his time with the Lakers should somehow be discounted because he wasn’t a “Lakers for life” type of star.
Speaking with Ryan Ward of Sports Illustrated, the former Lakers champion said fans in Los Angeles are looking at James through a lens that’s shaped by years of homegrown stars. That, Ariza argued, makes the reaction to LeBron’s Lakers run feel a little off.
“It’s kind of unfair, because being in L.A. and being from L.A., you were spoiled with lifelong Lakers, people who’ve been there for a long time and grew with the organization, and just made their imprint on the organization in that way,” said Ariza on how the Lakers’ fans should perceive LeBron James’ legacy.
Ariza pointed to what changed once James arrived in Los Angeles. The wins followed, the business side took off, and the Lakers got a title out of it.
“LeBron coming to L.A. with who he is already, it kind of tainted what, I guess, Lakers fans look at as ‘Lakers for life’, but when he got here, everything changed; everything went upwards; ticket prices increased (laughs). The jersey sales probably increased.
We were starting to win more. We got a championship out of it.”
For Ariza, that’s enough to put James in the same celebration category as any other player who brought a title to the franchise.
“So his time here should be celebrated just like everybody else who has won the title. He’s a Laker.
He’s been a Laker. I think whatever negativity he gives might be unwarranted a little bit,” he further added.
Ariza also weighed in on the ring-chasing talk that’s followed James after his move to the 76ers’ superteam at age 41. He doesn’t see that as some kind of knock on LeBron’s career choices.
“There was a point in time when he was going to the [NBA] Finals like every single year. So to say that he’s ring-chasing, I don’t know if that’s like a thing to say more so than he’s exercising his right to move about the country in the ways that he may see fit.”
Ariza said his own career gave him a broader view of what moving around the league can look like, and he believes James has earned the freedom to finish his career however he chooses.
“Again, in my career, I moved around a lot. So I got the opportunity to see a lot of different things, meet a lot of different people, and enjoy a lot of different markets as well, and just because maybe the way he’s moving around and the power that he has to move the way he wants to move, maybe it’s rubbing people the wrong way, but that’s in his right.”
“He can do whatever he wants to do. He’s worked his butt off for his whole career to be able to be in that position, and something that I think that people should appreciate,” Ariza said.
He also rejected the constant comparison between LeBron’s path and Kobe Bryant’s, saying the league itself has changed too much for the two careers to be measured the same way.
“They’re completely different. The system the NBA uses now is different.
Contracts are shorter now. Movement is different now.
You can’t really compare, although a player like Bron does have the ability to do and be wherever he wants to.”
“But he can also choose to move around the way he sees fit, too. The cities that he’s played in have been some really good cities, and he also got a chance to play in his hometown.
Again, you can’t really compare it; the journeys and outcomes are different. Everything is different,” Ariza concluded.
The larger point, as the source notes, is that the Lakers never drafted LeBron James or built him the way they did Kobe Bryant. That alone makes the two legacies different from the start.
So even if James one day gets a statue outside Crypto.com Arena, it would still not carry the same weight as Kobe Bryant’s place in franchise history. Bryant already has two statues outside the arena, and that is why, by this view, the comparisons between the two Lakers legacies don’t really hold up.
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