Tuesday 19th March 2024,
The Hoop Doctors

Things Got Weird Between LaMarcus Aldridge and the Lakers

NBA: Preseason-Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix SunsThere is only one word to describe the free-agency dalliance between LaMarcus Aldridge and the Los Angeles Lakers: awkward.

At the start of free agency, the Lakers, along with the San Antonio Spurs, were identified as one of the front-runners to land the Portland Trail Blazers’ nine-year veteran. Shit, the Lakers even met with Aldridge first, before any other team—not including any previous dialogue he had with the Blazers.

Initial returns on the meeting were good.

Like, really good, per ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne:

But then shit started to hit the fan.

And quick.

First, Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski dropped this perception-shifting bomb:

A few hours later, the Los Angeles Times‘ Mike Bresnahan dropped some heat of his own (h/t Ball Don’t Lie):

Soon after, Kobe Bryant dropped some intel of his own:

Hmmmm…Interesting. Maybe the Lakers are still in the running.

Or not.

They had sent out some tweets in support of their courtship of Aldridge once free agency got underway, the most notable of which was the head photo up above. It featured a photoshopped picture of Aldridge in a Lakers jersey, implying that the Lakers themselves were either oozing confidence, super desperate, or both.

Whatever the case, they mysteriously deleted them, hours after all this other crap went down, per ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes:

Fret not, though, sensitively proud Lakers fans. Your team wasn’t embarrassed. They were just doing the NBA a solid.

From ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin:

Well, there you have it. We’re not yet two days into free agency, and the Lakers have already struck out under Aldridge, doing so because their analytics department isn’t deep enough, and because Kobe still refuses to kiss the ring of players the Lakers are pitching.

On the bright side, Lakers fans, at least you know it has nothing to do with organization’s Twitter game. That remains strong. Or at least good enough.


 

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