LeBron James said delivering a championship for the Lakers is the only way he can earn a new level of respect from the team’s fans in Los Angeles.

The trophy ceremony plans are getting finalised. Boxes are being shipped out of the NBA bubble in advance of the looming shutdown. Hotel rooms, sometime in the next few days, will be filled again by regular people looking for their long-awaited Disney fix.

For LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, the stage is set.

The NBA Finals – and the longest season in league history, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and four-and-a-half month shutdown that followed – could end in the early hours of Saturday morning, with James and the Lakers going into Game 5 with a 3-1 series lead over the Miami Heat. he Heat are simply looking for a way to extend this series to a Game 6 that would be played on late on Sunday night, while James is looking for his fourth ring and, he thinks, a whole new level of respect from Los Angeles fans.

What I have learned being a Laker is that the Laker faithful don’t give a damn what you have done before,” James said. “They don’t care about your resume at all until you become a Laker. You have got to do it as a Laker, then they respect you.”