One Laker Staffer Says the Team Didn’t Do Enough for LeBron. Here’s the Real Regret.

LeBron James is about to start his 23rd NBA season, but it won’t be with the Lakers. He made that clear last week when he announced his departure, and now the franchise is left sorting through what went wrong.

One staffer, speaking to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, pointed to a specific regret: the Lakers never fully acknowledged the sacrifices James made this past season.

“Honestly, I don’t know if we did enough to acknowledge the sacrifices he made in being willing to give the keys over to Luka and AR this year,” the staffer said. “Of course he has a big ego and people can say what they want about that. But he’s also the No. 1 scorer in the history of basketball and he really tried to do what was best for the team to win.”

That quote cuts to the heart of it. LeBron, at 41 and about to turn 42, handed over control of the offense to Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. For a guy who has been the center of every team he’s played for since high school, that’s not a small ask. And according to this staffer, the organization basically took it for granted.

The timing of all this matters. Reports surfaced that the Lakers wanted James to take a massive pay cut this offseason, dropping from his $52.6 million salary down to something in the $10 million to $15 million range, all so they could go after a starting center like Walker Kessler from the Jazz. The Lakers held LeBron’s Bird rights, meaning they could offer him more money than anyone else. But their plan required him to take significantly less.

Shelburne explained the math: the Lakers figured the only realistic path to adding a top-flight center — something they promised Dončić — was if James took a vastly reduced salary. One team source called it “the curse of incumbency.” Even if the Lakers offered $10 million to $15 million more than another team, LeBron could still view that as a pay cut if the other team was offering the max it was allowed to give him.

James apparently wasn’t interested. Rather than negotiate, he just announced his exit before the Lakers could even make their pitch. That’s the move of a guy who saw where this was heading and decided he’d rather leave than deal with the conversation.

It’s hard not to wonder if things would have been different if the Lakers had made more of an effort to appreciate what LeBron did last season. He wasn’t just the all-time leading scorer. He was a guy who stepped back so two younger players could run the show. And instead of building on that goodwill, the front office asked him to take a haircut to fix a roster problem they created.

Now James is testing the market. Agent Rich Paul has already fielded calls from interested teams. The Lakers, meanwhile, are left with the regret of a season that could have ended differently if they had just said thanks.