“How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
It’s a quote that has existed for quite some time with unclear origins. It was popularized by the book and movie “Moneyball,” but it’s generally accepted that it was not
its origin. Wherever it came from, it’s as powerful as it is cliche.
It invokes the emotion, passion and love of the sport. It’s used to describe how the seemingly mundane moments have such a deeper meaning. It’s for when Freddie Freeman walks off a World Series game and rekindles the memories of Kirk Gibson. It’s for when Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the two greatest players in the game, are squaring off with the World Baseball Classic on the line.
On Thurday, the Lakers had a moment worthy of the phrase.
On the surface, Rui Hachimura’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer is already a memorable play in its own right. But so much more went into that.
“The basketball Gods, if you do it the right way, tend to reward you.” – head coach JJ Redick
It all stems from the man who passed Hachimura the ball, LeBron James. In year 23, he has shown his first signs of losing his fight against Father Time. Sciatica — one of the more “old person” injuries possible — robbed him of not just his training camp and preseason, but the first 14 games of the regular season.
Playing catch-up has been a difficult task for LeBron, who has never had to wade these waters before. As he’s tried to reintegrate alongside the new face of the franchise Luka Dončić and emerging superstar Austin Reaves, he’s struggled.
Always a slow starter to open a season, LeBron has tried to find the gears so far this season, often as the third option, but has misfired more often than not. As a result, one of his longest, most enduring streaks has been in nearly constant jeopardy. Entering Thursday, LeBron had scored double-digit points in 1,297 consecutive games, spanning nearly 19 years.
It’s served as the latest sign of LeBron’s basketball mortality. A streak that long felt like a formality was now being tested nightly.
Against the Raptors, many of the familiar struggles persisted. His jumper was off as he went 4-17 from the field and 0-5 from three. Even as he continued to impact the game with his playmaking (11 assists), his points total was still a single digit. And as the game wound down, the opportunities were dwindling.
In that final possession, with LeBron sitting on eight points, it’s Reaves who starts with the ball before being doubled by the Raptors. He swings to LeBron, who has a decision to make in a split second. Does he attack the rim on a smaller defender, potentially getting his 10th point and winning the game? Or does he swing the ball one more time to an open teammate, sacrificing his streak for a potential win?
But it was never really a decision. His basketball instinct took over. Having always preached his willingness to make the right play at any moment, LeBron was presented with two clear and distinct paths on Thursday.
And he didn’t hesitate a second.
“You always make the right play,” LeBron said postgame. “That’s just been my M.O. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career. There’s not even one second guessing that. Once they doubled [Reaves] and the ball got swung to me, I know it’s a numbers game. We got a 4-on-3 advantage and I was just trying to put the ball on time, on target and right in Rui’s shot pocket and he knocked it down.”
Relatively early in his career, LeBron was chastised for making the type of play he made in this moment. Generations of fans who watched Kobe and Michael Jordan expected the star player to take the big shot, no matter if it was the right play. Double-teamed, triple-teamed, off-balance or even with a teammate open, it didn’t matter. Stars take the final shot.
LeBron always bucked that trend…and took a lot of flack for it. But it never deterred him. And it certainly never stopped him from winning.
“That aspect was always one of the most foolish things I’ve ever heard as far making the right pass, making the right play,” LeBron said. “We are in the business of winning basketball games. My whole life, I’ve just played the game that way. I’ve taught the game that way and I’ve won at every single level I’ve played at by playing the game that way so there was no reason for me ever to change once I got to this level. It doesn’t change. Basketball is basketball.”
He’s never shied away from making the right play, criticism be damned, but there has also never been a singular moment that so expressly laid out the two paths. Many, many stars in his position would have taken a shot. Many of those players, LeBron included, have the skill to make it. Few have the awareness or willingness to make the extra pass to a teammate.
And it wasn’t just any teammate either.
“It’s like one of those things that every basketball player dreams. Especially like this, play for the Lakers, get a pass from LeBron.”
With the nearly constant roster turnover of the modern NBA, Rui is now the third-most tenured Laker. Only Austin and LeBron have donned the purple and gold longer than him.
LeBron took Rui under his wing in Los Angeles. The two spent the summer working out together in 2023. The two have been close on and off the court throughout the years.
“Coming from everything,” Hachimura said of where the chemistry between the two originates, “those big games like this, the big moments, the playoffs – we’ve played so many playoffs together – the practice. Even off the court, just being around with him, I can see that he trusts me…We’ve been playing for a long time so I think we have all this chemistry.”
To further demonstrate the brilliance of LeBron’s basketball mind, he had prepped Rui for the moment. During a timeout earlier in the contest, LeBron told Rui to stand in the corner alongside him as he expected the Raptors would double Austin. When that happened, he wanted Rui to be in the corner ready for the shot.
Whether either of them expected that moment to be in the final seconds of the game is unknown, but both were ready for it when it happened. And the result was as memorable a moment as Hachimura’s had in his career.
“He just makes the right play,” Hachimura said. “That’s what he’s been doing his whole career. He just lets the game come to him. He doesn’t force anything…But for him to lose this streak, of course he probably thinks about it. At the same time, it’s crazy. Since 2007? That’s insane. I don’t even know how to describe that. He’s been doing this a long time, of course, but that streak is never getting beaten by anybody.”
In the end, there’s something beautifully poetic about it all.
LeBron, with a choice between personal glory and his streak or the right basketball play and his teammate, never hesitated to pass to Hachimura, the player he had taken under his wing and who rewarded him with the game-winner.
“I always just make the right play,” LeBron said. “That’s all that matters. Win, lose or draw. You make the right play, the [basketball] Gods will always give it back to me. No matter if it was a win or loss or whatever. That’s just how I was raised and how I always play the game.”
How can you not be romantic about basketball?
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
