LeBron James reminds he didn’t join Lakers to ‘make movies’ and yes, his IMDB page backs him up

LeBron James was already considered the greatest basketball player of all time when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, but that hasn’t stopped him from filling his career with some of the best basketball of his career over the past six years. CV. Last season, he broke the NBA’s historical scoring record. He averaged 27.3 points per game with the Lakers, which is higher than his numbers with the Miami Heat (26.9 points) or the Cleveland Cavaliers (27.2 points). In 2020, he won his fourth NBA championship, leading the Lakers to a 17-17 tie with their eternal rivals, the Boston Celtics. He’s so good that you almost forget that when he moved to Los Angeles, one theory surrounding the decision was that James made it in large part to further a future career in Hollywood.

Well…you may have forgotten…but James certainly hasn’t.On Saturday, I posted a screenshot of his stats from the win over the Portland Trail Blazers on the site Instagram The caption read, “But I’m just here to make a movie! Isn’t that what you said!?!?” James said in the post after Sunday’s win over the Houston Rockets: “Sometimes you need to remind people. So here it is.”

James has certainly fulfilled his basketball deal in Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean he’s neglected his filmmaking ambitions. So, based on James’ own resurrected narrative, it’s worth asking: Has LeBron’s Hollywood work changed since he moved to Los Angeles? The answer is yes and no, but mostly no.

Let’s start with the obvious. Despite living in the filmmaking capital of the world, James hasn’t really appeared in more projects as an actor. His IMDB page lists 27 acting credits. We will remove seven of them immediately because they are ads or listings that stem directly from his basketball duties. This leaves us with 20 projects. Here’s why they fail when it comes to time:

• James has appeared in seven scripted television shows. All seven were done before he joined the Lakers. They have appeared in The Simpsons, Entourage, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Cleveland Show, LeBron, Survivor’s Remorse and Teen Titans Go.
• James has appeared in four music videos. Three were written before he joined the Lakers: Jay-Z’s “DOA – Death of Auto-Tune,” Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem’s “Forever,” and X Ambassadors and Jamie N Commons’ “Jungle.” ” (the game before the game). After joining the Lakers, he appeared in NLE Choppa’s fourth music video Champions in 2023.
• James has appeared in four short films. Two of them, “Breathe” and “My Time is Now,” were completed before he joined the Lakers. The other two, “Never Too Far Down” and “The Bunny & The GOAT,” were released after he joined the Lakers.
• James has appeared in four films. One of his most acclaimed performances to this day is “Trainwreck,” which was written entirely before James joined the Lakers. Next up is the voiceover performance of Littlefoot. The movie was released in September 2018, technically after James joined the Lakers, but keep in mind that the movie took years to make. James almost certainly recorded his lines while still a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Two other movies, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and “House Party,” were filmed after James joined the Lakers.
• In 2003, James appeared on the WWE Sunday Night Heat wrestling event as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

If James is planning to give up his basketball career in the name of acting, all this suggests is that the idea is far off. Since becoming a Laker, James has made two movies, starred in two short films and a music video. That’s it. This is not at all the resume of a player who just moved to Los Angeles to make movies. There was no significant difference in James’ acting career before and after he moved to California.

But there are notable differences in his production career. James has 58 producer credits on IMDB, including 6 unreleased projects. Only 17 of those projects were released in 2018 or earlier, indicating that James has become a prolific filmmaker since signing with the Lakers. James and business partner Maverick Carter first launched their production company SpringHill Entertainment in 2007, but only merged it with his other ventures Robot Company and Uninterrupted in 2020. Since then, the new SpringHill Company has branched out into quite a few areas. projects and signed deals with Disney and Universal Pictures.

Which of course begs the question: How involved is James as a filmmaker? The answer is… we don’t know. Most likely, it varies from project to project. He has an entire company that performs the day-to-day tasks of producing these projects, so he probably won’t interfere with the small details. But as we all know, James is very hands-on with his business ventures. It would be naive to think that he would leave his business entirely to others, especially on sports-related projects where he could draw on his expertise.

Still, we can be realistic. There is no doubt that James is the greatest 21-year basketball player in NBA history. A year ago, he was the greatest 20-year basketball player the league has ever seen, and that title will likely extend to all or most of his tenure with the Lakers. This is no accident. James is one of the hardest-working athletes in the world. Clearly, he has no shortage of off-field adventures, but with his 39th birthday approaching, the amount of work he has to put in to maintain his performance levels may not leave much time for filmmaking.

Even if it does, geography probably won’t be much of a deterrent no matter where he plays. After all, much of his free time comes during the offseason, when he’s not tied to any particular city. James could still play and make film in Cleveland every summer if he wanted to. Filmmaking isn’t just a career for Los Angeles athletes, either. For example, the last major project starring an NBA player was the Netflix film Hustle. Two of the most prominent basketball players are Juancho Hernangomez, who never played for the Lakers or Clippers, and Anthony Edwards, who only played for Minnesota Timberwolves.

So in the end, James was right. His acting credits haven’t increased since he moved west, and there’s no reason to believe that for any of his on-screen ambitions, it would have to be in Los Angeles.