Here’s what LeBron James had to say after his first taste of loss with the Lakers, a 128-119 season opener against the Blazers:

Oscar-winning cartoon maker Kobe Bryant was set to be a jury member on this weekend’s second annual Animation Is Film, a Los Angeles-based film festival, but organizers rescinded his invitation after the animation community protested the inclusion of “accused rapist and sexual predator Kobe Bryant.” The news was first…

This should not be interpreted as proof that Brandon Ingram is Good now. He had a promising sophomore season; he’s got some defensive versatility; he’s a terror when pointed at the cup and on the move. These things will sort themselves out in the regular season. Certainly a preseason game against the putrid Kings is…

On March 7, 2010, the Church of Kobestan found its holy sacrament in a Lakers-Magic regular-season game. Sports goblin Matt Barnes was inbounding the ball on the right sideline. He faked a pass directly into Kobe Bryant’s face and Kobe Bryant—he of the hyper-competitive, killer-instinct mentality, the, uh,“Black…

The Los Angeles Lakers opened their preseason last night in San Diego. Who cares! I don’t care. The NBA should shut up for at least another couple weeks. Did they win? Who were their opponents? Who led them in scoring? Don’t care!

One of the funniest arcs of this NBA offseason was watching the Lakers roster coalesce around its new centerpiece, each new contract landing like a punchline. LeBron James is here now—the rest of his California-loving superteam is just dawdling, right? When does Paul George’s flight get in? Can’t Kawhi Leonard frown…

Here’s a charming clip of LeBron James wearing shorts and opining on the ass-like texture of a kiwi on Ellen yesterday.

The Los Angeles Lakers will reportedly buy out the remaining two years of the contract of Luol Deng, bringing to a close one of the great mistakes of the insane summer of 2016.

Shaquille O’Neal recently told a fast-talking paparazzo that he’d “heard” Kobe Bryant was coming out of retirement to play with LeBron James and the Lakers. This was almost certainly a joke, but as a pretext for silly-season speculation—and a cucumber season blog from one horrifyingly bored blogger—it’ll do just fine.…

However in the bag Lakers fans might be for young Lonzo Ball, LeBron James joining the Lakers is the first unambiguously positive thing to happen for that organization since Kobe Bryant retired after the 2016 regular season. They’ve been operating in a state of increasing irrelevance since they won their last title,…

In a move that is both delightfully absurd and absolutely no surprise, the Los Angeles Lakers signed free-agent forward Michael Beasley today. It’s delightfully absurd because everything about Beasley—his mystic wisdom master personality, his microwave offense and avant-garde approach to defense—is kind of absurd, and…

The Lakers are going to be much, much better and more fun than they were last season, but they’re not going to beat the Warriors. This hasn’t stopped team representatives from getting a little chesty, first by suggesting that their new-look roster of weirdos surrounding LeBron is actually an uncanny replica of…

Josh Hart and Collin Sexton had what looks like a decent duel in the semifinals of the NBA Summer League tournament last night. Hart went off for 37 points and nine rebounds in the Lakers’ 2OT win (nothing is more conceptually absurd than Summer League overtime), while Sexton had 27 points for the Cavs. The Lakers may…

Overall, being the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers seems pretty sweet. Even apart from, like, getting to be a very rich person in a sunny and gorgeous town with great food and sweet beaches, it’s a good job: At any given time something like half the NBA’s best players seem like they’re either actively…

At this point, the relationship between Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs seems irrevocably broken, and the only thing left to settle is whether the Lakers wait for him to hit free agency or the Spurs take a cut-rate deal to get something back in return for their superstar. ESPN’s Spurs reporter, Michael Wright, recently…

The blueprint for a successful LeBron James-led team has been pretty well-established over the course of the last few seasons: Surround him with as many shooters as possible and wait for him to get them wide-open shots. So it was definitely odd to see the Lakers, fresh off convincing LeBron to join them, go out and…

It’s undeniably wack that the Warriors, with the signing of DeMarcus Cousins to a one-year, $5.3 million deal on Monday night, have managed to assemble an entire starting five that, when healthy, could run the Eastern Conference All-Stars off the court. But what makes the earthquake of the Cousins signing a little…

The Lakers have LeBron James. Good for them. They now also have a handful of guys who seem like ideal targets to absorb LeBron’s ire.

The biggest surprise from yesterday’s NBA news is not that LeBron James chose to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, a destination that’s been on his radar for at least a year, but that he committed to them for a full three years, plus a player option for a fourth.

LeBronWatch has ended: LeBron James will sign a four-year, $154 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. Klutch Sports Group, which sounds like a Macedonian gag news site but is actually the agency founded by LeBron’s pal and agent Rich Paul, broke the news. The announcement has a blatant disregard for hyphens: