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The face of the NBA conversation has been exhausting sports talk over the past few weeks, and much of that excitement has been influenced by the Luka Dončić trade to the L.A. Lakers and how effectively his partnership with LeBron James has automatically elevated the entire team coming out of the All-Star break and reinvigorated James’ chase for a fifth championship at age 40.
On Sunday night, the Lakers secured their sixth straight win with a 108-102 win over Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. While LeBron makes history every game at this point in his incomparable career (he’s 1 point shy of 50,000 career points), entering the game Dončić had recorded 99 consecutive games with a made 3-point field goal, before swishing a 26-footer, marking his 100th straight game with a made 3-pointer.
Luka Dončić and LeBron James Breaking Records: Faces Of The League
In doing so, Dončić now becomes just the fifth player in NBA history to hit a 3-pointer in 100 straight games, according to StatMamba on X.
Dončić still has a while to go to break Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry’s record of 268 consecutive games with a made 3-pointer, which he set between 2018 and 2023. By the way, Curry also holds the next best streak with 157 straight games, while Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard is in third with 150, per Basketball-Reference.
In addition, Dončić also became the second-fastest player in Lakers history to record 150+ points, 50+ rebounds, and 50+ assists, with only LeBron able to do it faster.
If Luka keeps this pace up and can help lead L.A. to another championship then the face of the league debate might be settled by June. Most fans are crediting Luka’s arrival with Bron’s inspired play of late anyway.
“For the first time in his career, he isn’t the biggest threat to the opposition on his own team. And as a result, he isn’t getting guarded by their best defender either,” said on fan on X.
“Agreed. Lebron (beta) needed an alpha to carry him,” sarcastically said another.
Until then, the debate over the next face of the NBA seems to intensify daily with the usual suspects aging out of their primes and new stars emerging.
Anthony Edwards Doesn’t Want To Be Face of NBA
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards’ name has been mentioned for that honor plenty of times over the past two seasons, as he drew comparisons to Michael Jordan during his Western Conference Finals run in 2024.
RELATED: “If You Can Put This Ball In This Rim, Then Come Over Here”: Anthony Edwards Doesn’t Have To Be Face Of NBA Because The League’s Gone Global
Edwards, however, recently dismissed the idea, saying he had no interest in being the league’s face.
As he often does, LeBron inserted his strong opinion into the debate by backing Edwards’ choice and then blasting the media for forcing the narrative.
“Why do you wanna be the face of the league when all the people that cover our game and talk about our game shi- on everybody?” James added. “It’s just weird, weird energy.”
Naturally the media gatekeepers such as Stephen A. Smith had a retort for LeBron’s comments, and Fox Sports radio legend Rob Parker called him “phony and fake” for what he sees as a contradictory stance on media coverage.
LeBron has made a career off of riding the media hype and then playing the victim of false maratives when the situation doesn’t suit him. He’s actually a master at it and has continuously gotten passes for embellishing the truth at times.
After the Lakers’ win over the Wolves, LeBron addressed what he feels is a media obsession with naming a new face of the league. Deep down, he probably takes it as a slight because he is 40 and still hanging out with the young boys, but the culture of pro sports is to look for his replacement while his dinner is still hot.
“Ant is already sayin’ he don’t want it,” James said.“Sayin’ he ain’t wanna deal with that shi-… I mean it’s not fortunate but like… I don’t know,”
That didn’t go over well with some media pundits either.
Stephen A. Smith accused LeBron of running from the machine that he helped drive, especially on social media over the years. His reaction to various cultural, social and basketball-related issues have definitely moved the needle and also raised his popularity as face of the NBA.
“When he said that, it really ticked me off because [LeBron] is negating to point out- there are people here celebrating the game. Any way in which the game has been hurt has not been hurt by the media. And by the way in today’s generation, these dudes think the media is social media. They lump us all in the same. There’s people who’ve never covered the league … and we don’t get into their personal business … we covering the game, and it’s never enough — and he’s not bringing that up,” says SAS on the latest edition of “First Take.”
Best-Case Scenario: LeBron Hands Title To Luka After A Couple More Rings
The NBA is at an odd crossroads. The money is flowing like champagne at a kingpin party in the ’80s. Players are building brands that far transcend the basketball court, but fans also feel like the game is lacking something and demanding accountability for drastic changes in style of play, number of games played and enthusiasm about how the sport is delivered to the paying fans.
RELATED: Stephen A. Smith Announces End of “LeBron James Era” With Los Angeles Lakers: ‘This Is This Man’s Franchise … Luka Dončić’
These complaints, which should be valued by the league and the players, are now being framed as the result of a negative media spin about the NBA, which lacks the accountability that LeBron James and others always talk about.
