LeBron James has always been the go-to guy for the past two decades. However, last season was when he wasn’t the go-to guy. It seems like it really bothered him. A new report, though, suggests the actual conflict wasn’t with a certain Slovenian superstar.
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NBA reporter Law Murray of The Athletic addressed a question in a Reddit AMA concerning the relationships between James and his fellow stars last season.
“Covering LeBron James last season, he had an internal conflict going on with how much he had to defer to Austin Reaves (even Bron understood that Luka was the top dawg in any circumstance). Bron was very pleased with being able to still be the lead option in a postseason setting, particularly a winning one against the Rockets,” Murray said.
During the 2025-26 season, James had the lowest career usage rate of 26.2 percent, with 20.9 points per game, 7.2 assists per game, and 6.1 rebounds per game; these statistics indicate how far down the pecking order James was behind Doncic and Reaves.
However, there were some difficulties for James, Doncic, and Reaves with developing chemistry among themselves at the beginning of the 2025-26 season until Reaves found his place as a second scoring option at the beginning of March 2026.
Los Angeles won 15 games and lost only twice during that month, with James claiming that he was ready to make personal sacrifices for the greater good of the team.
But everything changed on April 2 when both Doncic and Reaves were sidelined in a 139-96 loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder, with Doncic suffering from a Grade 2 hamstring strain and Reaves having a Grade 2 oblique strain, which left him sidelined until the start of the playoffs.
With his co-stars off the court, James took center stage to score 30 points, grab nine rebounds, and dish out 15 assists in the following game against the Dallas Mavericks, which, according to Murray, made James very pleased that he could carry a team single-handedly.
James led the Lakers to victory over the Houston Rockets in a six-game series, despite not having two of his best players playing for most of the games. However, the team lost in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Thunder in a sweep.
This defeat paved the way for an even more important decision on the part of James, who eventually decided to join the Philadelphia 76ers this season, alongside Embiid, Maxey, and Brown, rather than re-signing with the Lakers team centered around Doncic and Reaves.
It is argued that bowing down to already-established stars such as Embiid and Maxey might be easier for James compared to bowing down to Reaves, whose career James has been following since his undrafted days through to his time as a top scorer at the Lakers.
However, despite all the talk about conflicts, the relationship between James and Reaves remains intact. Despite the official transfer of James to the Philadelphia team, both of the players remained friends during the offseason.
“I don’t know if I’ve honestly processed it yet,” said Reaves about James’ decision to leave the team. “Starting a season without him on the team is going to be different for me.”
Reaves, who joined the Lakers in 2021, has been playing with James for five out of his five years in the NBA.
James’ move could have exposed the underlying strain between them, but the outcome of their conflict did not affect the relationship formed within five years.