There was love. There was a championship. There were champagne-soaked locker rooms and million-dollar memories. There were moments when it all felt like a movie, like Hollywood had somehow written an award-winning basketball script and cast the perfect leading man.

And now?

Now it feels like that dramatic scene from “Marriage Story.” Two exhausted people in a room together fighting to preserve something that has quietly expired.

It’s time for the Lakers and LeBron James to get a divorce.

Not because they hate each other. Not because the relationship failed completely. But because sometimes relationships survive past their expiration date when both sides are terrified of what comes next.

LeBron may have admitted as much after the Lakers were swept out of the Western Conference semifinals by the reigning champion Thunder on Monday.

“I don’t know what the future holds for me,” he said, saying the scary part out loud.

The Lakers already know what their future looks like.

It looks like Luka Doncic.

Doncic is 27 years old and entering the prime of his career. LeBron is 41 years old and entering the final chapter of the greatest career in NBA history. Those two timelines are not synchronized anymore. One clock is beginning. The other is ticking loudly in the background like a smoke detector with a dying battery.

The Lakers could have built around Doncic last year, but LeBron handcuffed them by opting into the final year of his contract with a salary of nearly $53 million.

The 2025-26 season felt like the Lakers had already moved on emotionally and were dating someone new, but they still hadn’t told their ex-wife to move out of the house.

It’s true that after Doncic went down with a hamstring injury April 2, LeBron led the team to a first-round upset over the Rockets. We appreciate that. But in the end, the outcome was still the same: a sweep and another season without a championship.

Both parties will come up with reasons to stay together.

The team went 16-2 when fully healthy and when LeBron selflessly became the third option. They could use that as a reason to stay together and “run it back.”

LeBron will point to the roots his family has in LA. That his son, Bronny, is still with the Lakers’ organization. He’s an hour plane ride from watching his other son, Bryce, play college basketball at the University of Arizona. His daughter, Zhuri, plays on a volleyball team here. His wife, Savannah, co-hosts a podcast here. The infrastructure of LeBron’s empire all resides in LA.

It’s about accepting reality.

And the reality is that the Lakers have spent years reshaping themselves around LeBron. They’ve built rosters around his preferences, worked with his moods and made decisions based on his basketball worldview. They constantly tried to satisfy the demands of their superstar.

Sometimes it worked brilliantly like the trade for Anthony Davis and the 2020 championship in the bubble.

Sometimes it blew up in their faces like a scene from the “War of the Roses.” Remember the Russell Westbrook trade?

That’s the hidden cost of LeBron.

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He’s not just a player. He’s an entire ecosystem.

And for eight years, the Lakers were married to him.

But now it’s time to move on with someone else.

It’s time to build around Doncic.

With over $100 million in salary coming off the books this summer, it’s time for the Lakers to have a clean slate and a fresh start.

They need to find athletic rim protectors and lob threats to pair with Doncic on the pick and roll. Surround him with long wing defenders and knockdown shooters who can spread the floor.

“Any team, including ours, would love to have LeBron James on their roster,” Lakers GM Rob Pelinka said during a season-ending news conference Tuesday. His comments were polite, respectful and diplomatic.

But public statements during divorces are always polite before the lawyers arrive.

Privately, they should thank him for the last eight years, for banner No. 17, and let him know that it’s not beneficial to the team for him to return. That you can’t pass the torch to Doncic while LeBron is still holding it. That even if LeBron signed a veteran minimum contract, Doncic and the franchise would still live in his shadow.

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