Shannon Sharpe expressed his feelings about how Rob Pelinka handled LeBron James’ time with the Lakers and not maximizing his championship window.
Sharp went on a tirade, questioning every decision made by vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka.
“I can’t for the life of me understand it,” Nightcap said. “Joe, do you remember when they were in the bubble? What did someone say? What was your game plan with Russell Westbrook? Let him shoot. Next year, what did they do? They signed a guy who they said was going to make them shoot. Make it count.
“Now y’all are pissing me off. Let’s be real. If Rob Pelinka wasn’t Kobe Bryant’s agent, would he have this job? But y’all don’t want to talk about that. All you want to talk about is, okay, LeBron James put his son on the team. LeBron hand-picked this. Let’s have a real conversation. I have time today.
“Where’s their draft pick? Where’s Jalen Hood-Schifino? He was your first-round pick a few years ago. Where is he? You’ve got defenders. You’ve got JaVale McGee. You’ve got Dwight Howard. You’re not paying them 30 million. You’re just parting with it.
“And then what do you go and get? You think, if we had Carmelo Anthony, we would be better. Carmelo is a phenomenal player. A phenomenal offensive player. But Carmelo is old and can’t defend. Russ has never been known as a defender, and he can’t shoot.
“LeBron wants Tyronn Lue. This guy has won championships and coached unbelievably. No, we’re going to keep Luke Walton. Man, can you look at what Luke did with the Golden State Warriors? I could coach the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond and Klay Thompson. Who the hell can’t coach them to a championship? How did you do with the Lakers? How did you do with the Sacramento Kings? Well, that’s what you want to do
“But now you want all of these things to go exactly the way you want them to. I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. Luka is one of my favorite players. You can’t win if your backcourt defense is challenged. For example, you win a championship like this. Think about it. When they played Luka Doncic, what did they say? We want Luka to defend.
“So we’re going to put him in the pick-and-roll. As good as he is offensively, what happens in crunch time? What happened to Austin Reeves last night? Every time they want a basket, no matter who Austin or Luka is guarding, bring him to me. I need to see him. Y’all watch the game.
“It’s going to be really interesting. Whether LeBron is on the court or not, you better get some guys that can defend. I’m ready for LeBron to go. I really am. All they do is blame him. The last championship they won before LeBron got there was 2010. The next one is 2020 with the pandemic.
“After Kobe retired, Kobe shot under 40 percent in his last few years, no one was even talking about the Lakers until LeBron went there. You didn’t have to recruit him. He went there. I wanted him to leave, and I wanted to see how many championships you guys could win. Think about the Miami Heat. The Heat only have one championship, what are they selling you before they win more championships? Heat culture.
“You mean to tell me that a team that won 17 championships didn’t have a culture? Who did they develop? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wasn’t even there. Shaq, you didn’t draft Shaq. Magic said, I’m out of here. Next year you lose Ty Lue, and then you go to Frank Vogel. Guess who’s in his backcourt? Two of the smartest guys the NBA has ever seen, LeBron James and Rajon Rondo.
“I just wonder what you guys would do. I’d love to know because I’m a fan of Luka and I’m a fan of Austin Reeves. The Austin Reeves story should be a documentary. For a guy who was an undrafted free agent and averaged seven, nine, 13, then 19, 23 points a game, it should be studied. It shows what you can do when you put your mind to it and put in the work. Sometimes you get to go into the right situation.
“He spoke passionately about how LeBron took him under his wing. He didn’t have to. But I’m going to watch. I need to see some championships, Los Angeles Lakers fans. I need to see some championships in the next five years.”
READ MORE: LeBron James expresses frustration with Rob Pelinka and Lakers
