The Los Angeles Lakers' future dramatically changed when they acquired Luka Doncic in early February. The focus was no longer on 40-year-old LeBron, but on their new young star. How the Lakers have navigated the offseason proves that, for the first time in his career, it's not all about LeBron.
After LeBron exercised his $52.8 million player option, his agent, Rich Paul, released a statement to ESPN that led many to believe that the star wanted to compete for a championship elsewhere. After weeks of trade speculation (a lot of which didn't make sense), The Athletic reported that LeBron and the Lakers hadn't talked about a buyout or a trade.