NBA Rumors: LeBron James Secretly Pondered Lakers Fans’ Level of Support and Acceptance.

LeBron James has had several iconic moments during his six seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the future Hall of Famer wasn’t always sure L.A. fans would embrace him when he originally signed with the team.

Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks and Dave McMenamin, James “privately questioned whether Laker Nation would ever fully embrace him” because of his past matchups with Kobe Bryant earlier in his career.

When James decided to join the Lakers in the summer of 2018, there were several stories written about how Bryant’s fans were not prepared to welcome him on the Lakers.

“… If you’re a fan of mine, then you’re a fan of winning; you’re a fan of the Lakers. I bleed purple and gold, so that’s above anything else. I’ve been a Laker fan since I was yay high. That’s never going to change, right. And it’s about winning championships, so they’ll (those fans will) fall in line.”

There was never a proper rivalry between James and Bryant because they never squared off in the NBA Finals. Nike did its best to manufacture a rivalry in 2009 by creating a series of commercials featuring the two superstars as puppets.

Things didn’t work out because James and the Cleveland Cavaliers lost in the Eastern Conference Finals. Bryant led the Lakers to a championship with a victory over the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals.

James has been able to carve out his own legacy in Los Angeles. He led the franchise to a championship during the 2019-20 season. He surpassed Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Feb. 7, 2023.

On Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets, James became the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 points in his career.