The NBA has begun to look less like a sports league and more like the movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in recent weeks, with various entities around the league putting up billboards to ask LeBron James to join their team as an NBA free agent.
First, a company from Philadelphia put up billboards in Cleveland to recruit James to the Sixers, which led to a response from Cleveland featuring a crown made to look like a middle finger flipping off the city of Philadelphia.
It seems the billboards won’t be stopping anytime soon, either, with the Lakers fans getting in on the action. James and the Cavaliers will be in Los Angeles come the weekend for their only visit.
But rather than take aim at the Cavaliers and their forthcoming efforts to re-sign James, the Lakers’ billboards will poke fun at Joel Embiid and his mantra for the 76ers, via James H. Williams of the SoCal Newsgroup:
There will be billboards put up in Los Angeles on Wednesday for LeBron James while poking fun at the billboards put up in Philadelphia, via @VeniceMase.
"No process. Just banners."
The Cleveland Cavaliers will be in LA next weekend:
· vs. Clippers (3/9)
· vs. Lakers (3/11) pic.twitter.com/QrCDMCXB3y— James H. Williams (@JHWreporter) March 2, 2018
The Lakers’ desire to sign James as a free agent this summer is no secret, and while things like these billboard wars and the attention they create are exactly why James never commits anywhere early and would rather let the entire league flirt with him, it also seems unlikely they’ll actually work.
It’s not like James doesn’t already know the Lakers want to sign him. Any team would. If James does decide to join Los Angeles, it won’t be because billboards convinced him to do it. It’ll be because he likes the team’s young core and financial flexibility and thinks he can build a winner there.
Whether the Lakers are seen as his best option for that will probably depend a lot on how the team finishes up the season, not some corny advetisements.