LeBron James’ tenure with the Lakers is over after he informed the NBA franchise he’d spent the past eight seasons with that he’ll sign elsewhere in free agency.

While both sides have shown each other nothing but respect since James’ decision went public, it is clear that his and the Lakers’ relationship wasn’t perfect. If it were, then James presumably would’ve stuck around in Los Angeles to end his NBA career.

Therefore, there’s interest around when James and the Lakers’ relationship began going awry. On July 2, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported the “disconnect” between James and the Lakers began after the franchise traded Russell Westbrook following a failed 2021-22 season and never recovered after that.

The Lakers traded for Westbrook in July 2021, sending Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and the 22nd overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft to the Wizards.

James reportedly had a hand in bringing Westbrook to LA. James and Anthony Davis believed adding Westbrook to their star duo would make the Lakers championship favorites again after they were bounced in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs.

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But it didn’t happen. Westbrook struggled alongside James and Davis, failing to produce his typical offensive output and committing too many turnovers. Westbrook was subject to a ton of scrutiny because of this, especially after the Lakers finished the 2021-22 season at 33-49 and missed the playoffs.

Westbrook started coming off the bench for LA during the 2022-23 campaign. While this produced better results than him spending most of his time in a lineup with James, the Lakers’ on-court cohesion never came close to what everyone expected when Westbrook came to LA. He was then traded to the Jazz in February 2023.

ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported in January that Jeanie Buss (the Lakers’ president and controlling owner in 2021) was frustrated that James failed to take accountability for the Westbrook trade not working because the Lakers apparently made the move to appease him.

Now it appears that this frustration was never quite solved, despite James staying in LA until now.