After Lakers' first-round exit, focus turns to LeBron James' legacy

Brandon Marshall called it a while back: "This Lakers team, they’re not gonna make it out of the first round."

There were multiple reasons for Marshall’s skepticism as he spoke on "First Things First." One was that Anthony Davis wasn’t healthy enough, which put everything on the shoulders of a LeBron James who was ailing with a bum ankle. Another was that the Phoenix Suns, who were transformed into contenders simply by the arrival of Chris Paul in November, were simply too good.

To Nick Wright, though, those things didn’t matter much. He figured that the Lakers would eventually have the benefit of what he called "Playoff LeBron James."

He figured that when the crucial moment came, the Lakers' star would rise to the occasion and carry his team into the next round.

"I don’t think they really need a great Anthony Davis in many of these series because they have ‘Playoff LeBron James,'" Wright said on "First Things First." "And the Lakers did not have ‘Playoff LeBron James’ in this series. And that, to me, is the most interesting question moving forward about what will be the final act of LeBron’s career.

"Was this series the canary in the coal mine as far as what LeBron is going to look like in years 19, 20, 21, or was this playoff series a guy who said, ‘I can be at 90-some percent,’ who was actually at 50 percent after the ankle injury. This was the worst playoff series LeBron James has played in his life other than the 2011 Finals against the Mavs."

LeBron was unable to carry the Lakers. He scored 29 points in Thursday’s season-ending 113-100 loss to Phoenix, but he made just 11 of his 36 field-goal attempts. He filled the box score with nine rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals – but also recorded three turnovers. There were times when he didn’t look like his explosive self.

Perhaps he was unable to keep the Lakers’ season alive due to fatigue after a short offseason. Maybe his ankle was bothering him, or his age is beginning to show. Or perhaps his other teammates weren’t up to the challenge the Suns presented.

Whatever the reason, the conversation inevitably turned to the star’s legacy on Friday morning, with plenty of perspectives available on the matter.

Shannon Sharpe, speaking on "Undisputed," said that anyone’s opinion on this matter could probably be linked to their opinion on LeBron in the first place.

"Wherever you are on LeBron, you’re still there," Sharpe said. "If you believe he’s the best player in the league, the GOAT, he’s still that. If you don’t, you never did. LeBron James is a four-time champion with four Finals MVPs, 17 straight All-Star Game appearances, which is an NBA record … for me, I don’t think this does nothing. I mean, he’s 14-1 in first-round appearances."

Skip Bayless disagreed. Bayless wanted to see more from LeBron early in the game. He wanted to see him take over, be more aggressive, drive to the basket more and shoot fewer 3-pointers (James was 3-for-10 from 3-point range). 

And he wanted to see LeBron finish better in the fourth quarter.

"This was a disaster for LeBron James," Bayless said. "And I’m sorry, it’s going to live on his legacy, just as he tarnished his legacy in 2011 in the Finals. It was an epic fail. It was the ‘Chosen One’ turning into the ‘Frozen One.’ … LeBron James over the last six games against the Phoenix Suns, shot 11-of-30 from the floor in the fourth quarter. That’s 37%."

Then again, maybe it’s too much to place it all on LeBron’s shoulders. Basketball is, after all, a team sport. Maybe LeBron deserves some of the blame for the Lakers’ first-round exit, but maybe the team itself deserves more.

That was the opinion of one former NBA player, Tim Legler, who didn’t have a lot of patience for the talk about LeBron’s legacy. He asserted that blame for the Lakers’ first-round flameout goes well beyond LeBron and falls on the shoulders of the organization as a whole, not any one person.

"The Lakers got basically what they deserved because they treated the regular season like a 72-game exhibition season," Legler said on ESPN’s "Get Up." "They put no sense of priority in the season because they thought ultimately at the end of the day, they have Anthony Davis and LeBron James, and they’ll figure it out when the time comes. … The truth is you cannot go through the regular season without prioritizing what you’re doing, and that’s kind of how they acted."

In the end, legacies are moving targets. They evolve as careers progress. When you examine LeBron’s, you have to examine the whole. It includes this first-round loss to the Suns. It also includes four championships and a whole lot of very impressive numbers.

James and the Lakers now have a long offseason to rest, regroup and prepare to write the next chapter of those legacies – for him and the franchise.

All of that can come later, though. First, he has a "Goon Squad" to worry about.

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