LeBron James turned in the best season for a 39-year-old in NBA history and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the 2024 NBA Playoffs despite an up-and-down 2023-24 season that featured injuries to several rotation players.
James played 71 regular season games and looked like his old self more often than not, rampaging down the lane in transition and even showing some spirited fight on the defensive end. However, not even a healthy James was enough for the Lakers to beat the Denver Nuggets in the postseason and now he and the organization must go back to the drawing board this offseason.
Major changes have already taken place as former head coach Darvin Ham and his entire coaching staff including Phil Handy were let go just a few days after Los Angeles’ playoff exit. The writing was on the wall for Ham, who seemed to lose the locker room after several unpopular lineup choices and frustrations with in-game management and scheming.
James also reportedly took exception with Ham’s proposed minutes restriction at the start of the regular season, which was quickly scrapped, per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
“James bristled at the idea of restricting his minutes at the start of the season, sources said — an idea that was noticeably scrapped after just a few games,” Shelburne reported.
The Lakers have always done their best to try and preserve James during the regular season because of all the mileage on his body, but the King likely disagreed with the approach this past season after missing so much time during the 2022-23 campaign. James eventually got his wish and got a normal workload, though there were nights where it was required for him to play heavy minutes in order to pull out wins.
As Los Angeles searches for its next head coach, it’ll need to keep James in mind as his buy-in will be of the utmost importance in getting off on the right foot. There is pressure to find the right candidate this time around because James’ window is quickly closing and the Lakers need him to get back to the mountaintop.
LeBron James was most viewed player on social media during 2023-24 season
Since LeBron James joined the Lakers, the franchise has seen a resurgence in things like ticket and jersey sales, plus a return to nearly a full slate of nationally televised games. James dominated the social media views as he was recently listed as the most-viewed player on the NBA’s social media channels for the 2023-24 season.
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