Why the Lakers need LeBron James more than LeBron James needs the Lakers

No matter how they got to this point, the Lakers have little choice but to appease LeBron

The Charlotte Hornets, Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors have never seen one of their players honored with a First-Team All-NBA selection. No Atlanta Hawk has been chosen for the First Team since 1986, and it's been a decade since a member of the Orlando Magic has been chosen for any of the three teams. Neither the Jazz nor the Pistons have had an All-Star starter in the past decade. Eight teams have never produced an MVP, and lest you believe this is strictly a small-market problem, the Brooklyn Nets are on that list. The Los Angeles Clippers would be too, were it not for the trophy Bob McAdoo won in their Buffalo Braves days.

All of this is meant to make a very simple point: do not take superstars for granted. Teams frequently go decades without having one. There are teams that, to this day, have never had a player as good as LeBron James is right now.

That is not a reality the Los Angeles Lakers are used to. Aside from the four-year gap between George Mikan and Jerry West and the five-year interlude between the Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal eras, they really didn't go without a superstar for any significant stretch of the first seven decades of their existence. They once cherished that fact. They paid an aging Kobe Bryant tens of millions of dollars he no longer deserved as both an early retirement present and an investment in his then-unnamed replacement. Come to the Lakers, the Bryant extension screamed, because we take care of our superstars.