A Hollywood ending? In LeBron James’ final days in Los Angeles

In a book about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s fitting that one memorable scene involves a Hollywood star: Will Smith.

Yaron Weitzman’s latest book is titled A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers. Suffice it to say, the plot thickens when Smith goes to the Lakers’ film room to address the team in 2022.

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It had been six months since Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Now Smith was participating in a series of celebrity speeches at the Lakers, an innovation brought by general manager Rob Pelinka. According to the book, James asked Smith question after question until a scheduled half-hour visit came to nearly double that amount, with fellow Laker Russell Westbrook becoming visibly frustrated, frowning in a team photo with Smith.

“You see personal and internal office dynamics that impact the game that you don’t always think about,” Weitzman says of the scene.

He notes that those who read the excerpt “seemed to be rooting for Westbrook” and “clinging to the idea that it was LeBron’s fault, LeBron was a fake.” He points out that Westbrook played for several NBA teams and, in Los Angeles, was “terrible on the court, stubborn, with no desire to change his game.”

As for James: “He’s the ultimate player, not just basketball… but the athlete of my generation,” says the 37-year-old Weitzman. And, the author adds, “It seemed like the ‘merger’ between LeBron and the Lakers was fertile ground for that kind of reporting and storytelling” fueled by what Weitzman calls behind-the-scenes drama.

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Weitzman is no stranger to analyzing NBA franchises. That’s what he did in his previous book, about the Philadelphia 76ers, Tanking to the Top. With the Lakers, however, the spotlight was more intense. There was the team’s headquarters in the epicenter of American entertainment. There was a legacy of championships won by stars like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, the latter two coached by the legendary Phil Jackson. (Last season brought another addition to the pantheon – Luka Dončić – but more on that later.) There was the role of the Buss family, particularly the late team owner Jerry Buss and his daughter Jeanie, who succeeded him in the executive position. Then there was what Weitzman called the “merger” between the Lakers and James, which brought star power of its own — as well as the increasingly powerful agency that represented him: Klutch Sports Group, run by James’ friend Rich Paul.

Related: The Luka era begins: inside the transformation that fuels the post-LeBron Lakers

How rare is James’ status in the NBA? The book notes his estimated worth of over a billion dollars while still on the NBA roster and his dream of one day owning a franchise. Weitzman tracks the impact of James’ comments on the media, including some very closely scrutinized remarks in a press conference following the Lakers’ exit from the 2023 playoffs: “I have a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me personally moving forward with the game of basketball, I have a lot to think about.”

Neither James nor team ownership would speak to Weitzman for the book. He filled in the gaps by reading news coverage from 15 years ago, supplementing it by watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, and talking to anyone who wanted to talk to him, a list that grew to nearly 300. Keep an eye on the footnotes as you read the book. Weitzman describes them as “like someone winking at the reader.”

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On page 54 you’ll find not one but two footnotes relating to Daenerys Targaryen. Why? Bryant is said to have urged Jeanie Buss to emulate the Game of Thrones character in early 2017. That’s when, according to the book, he won a George R.R. Martin-style power struggle for control of the team. The following year, James came to Los Angeles for four years and $154 million.

“The Lakers were in a dark age,” Weitzman says. “They definitely needed LeBron. LeBron saved Jeanie Buss’ legacy by coming there.” He adds that unlike past stars like Magic, Kobe or Shaq, LeBron came to the Lakers as “a fully formed icon, which they never had before.”

There were significant if not immediate benefits: a championship in James’ second season with the Lakers, 2019-20 — a season that ended amid the Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests. It was also a season that saw the deaths of Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. Coach Frank Vogel kept the team focused while playing in front of empty stands in the NBA bubble. It was title number 17 for the Lakers, tying them with the Boston Celtics for the all-time league record.

Would there be an encore? Pelinka looked to add more talent around James and brought in Westbrook in 2021. Yet the 2021-22 team failed to even qualify for the playoffs to defend its title, and Vogel lost his job.

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Darvin Ham succeeded Vogel as coach. James continued to impress on the field, but the team struggled around him. The book finds a perfect microcosm: On February 7, 2023, James broke the all-time NBA scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. There was applause for James after he scored at the end of the third quarter, and a salute from commissioner Adam Silver. However, as the book points out, it was the Thunder who won the game. The Lakers were at 25-30, in danger of missing the playoffs once again.

Cue more plot twists. The Lakers traded Westbrook and saw their fortunes rise. They made the playoffs, making it all the way to the Western Finals, which Denver won. It was an encouraging first season for Ham, but the following season the Nuggets beat the Lakers again, this time in the first round of the playoffs. The hated Celtics won the title that season, edging out LA for that record 18th championship.

In parting ways with Ham, the Lakers flirted with UConn coach Dan Hurley before he ultimately rejected LA. The Lakers hired player-turned-podcaster JJ Redick and made a unique draft decision: They selected James’ son Bronny at No. 54, creating a rare father-son duo in the lineup. Then, earlier this year, Pelinka made a league-shattering move, trading Anthony Davis for Mavericks superstar Dončić, who is already on track to replace James as the face of the Lakers.

At that point, Weitzman thought he was finished with the manuscript, which initially concluded with Bronny joining James on the Lakers. As they say in Hollywood, get me a rewrite.

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“I live in New York. The Lakers were playing the Knicks that night at Madison Square Garden,” Weitzman recalls of the Dončić trade. “I was at the game, then I was walking home, I saw the tweet – oh my God.”

The book ends in “where are they now” style, giving readers updates on the cast. Among them: The Buss family sold its majority stake to Mark Walter, the owner of the LA Dodgers, with Jeanie Buss remaining as governor and retaining 15% ownership.

“I’m curious to see where this goes,” Weitzman says. “Will he stay or will he go? I doubt he can actually stay… Usually, the people who pay the money want to be in charge.”

As for James?

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“Playing into your 40s is unprecedented,” marvels Weitzman. “In major American professional sports, the four major sports, Tom Brady is the only comparison. I’ve never seen anything like it.”