It's well documented that the Los Angeles Lakers are one of the best franchises in the history of the NBA and have played host to some of the best players in the history of the game. From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Magic Johnson, to Kobe Bryant, and now, they have LeBron James. The only issue with James, when compared to these players, is the fact that he's not known for playing with the Lakers. Bryant, Johnson, and Abdul-Jabbar all saw the majority of their success with the Lakers. This has made fans question whether or not LeBron is an all-time great Laker and whether or not he will ever be a legend within the franchise.
During a recent interview with Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times, Abdul-Jabbar stood up for LeBron and said he is, in fact, one of the best Lakers of all-time.
“He’s already shown he’s still the complete player that the Lakers wanted so I don’t think he needs to worry about that,” Kareem said. “They just needed to put the right pieces in place around him. You can’t win a world championship with just one elite player. You need some help and I think he has that now. If he plays well and the team is contending and in the playoffs and advancing late in the playoffs, that should be enough. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone, but Lakers fans are still hungry and that’s a good sign. They want to win and they want to support the team.”
This is surely a debate that will continue to rage on as LeBron finishes his career out with the team. Lakers fans expect a lot from their team and when you have the best player in the world, those expectations are magnified.