Before the Lakers had begun their season, LeBron James told his teammates that they reminded him of another veteran group. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers led by Tom Brady.
Brady’s Buccaneers lost their first game together in the QB’s first season away from the New England Patriots and were just 7-5 overall before they caught fire. After winning the last 4 games of the regular season, Bucs went 4-0 in the postseason, capped by a 31-9 win in Super Bowl LV over the favored Kansas City Chiefs.
James believed the Lakers, who traded for Russell Westbrook in the offseason and added a handful of accomplished vets such as Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, DeAndre Jordan, and Trevor Ariza to the mix, would be in store for a similar ride.
LeBron James shared this prediction with his teammates and Anthony after the Lakers’ practice concluded that it was an apt comparison.
Carmelo Anthony Talks About The Lakers In An Interview
“Just from the standpoint of starting off slow and having new guys on the team. New system. Guys trying to figure it out, guys trying to figure out how to play with LeBron and AD and now incorporating Russ and just now everybody figuring out what their role is,” he told reporters on a video conference call. “And what made it beautiful for the Bucs is that once it came together, it came together and you saw what happened with that.”
“It was just kind of preparing ourselves for whatever happens, whatever comes along,” Anthony said. “I think we were, I don’t want to say prepared for those [difficult] moments and those times mentally and emotionally, but yeah, those were conversations that were happening.”
