The Los Angeles Lakers just had one of their worst seasons in franchise history. Dubbed as championship favorites, the team did not even qualify for the playoffs. Moreover, they have been bashed for their management.

The Lakers have an aging squad with super contracts. Furthermore, recent reports stated that the team paid a hefty sum for a player who did not play all season!

With this report doing the rounds of the internet, fans on popular social media platform Instagram have given their reactions with some of them calling this a legal robbery.

The Los Angeles Lakers forced to pay retired star

The Los Angeles Lakers faced one of their biggest crisis in 2016. The team was without their biggest star, Kobe Bryant, who announced his retirement. 

The front office signed former All-Star Luol Deng in 2016. However, he hardly played. This was done to facilitate a young Brandon Ingram into the team. Despite being signed to a hefty four-year deal amounting to $72 million, he was benched the entire season.

Furthermore, Deng only played one game during the 2018 season. The Lakers signed NBA legend LeBron James and Deng was sacrificed in order to create cap space. When his contract was bought out, the front office paid him back in $5 million increments every season.

Interestingly enough, after around 4 years, the team has finally paid him out fully. Deng was paid more than stars like Carmelo Anthony and Malik Monk this season, who have been crucial this season.

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The fact that the Lakers have been paying a star for 6 years, who has not taken part in 4 of those 6 shows the lack of future planning from the front office.

Fans react to the report

With the shocking news regarding the Los Angeles Lakers and Luol Deng doing the rounds of the internet, fans have reacted. While one fan wrote, “bro got paid to sit at home W“, another called it a legal robbery. The user wrote, “Bro pulled off a legal robbery”.

The fans on the internet were creative with their comments as many of them wrote “Deng, it’s about time” and “It’s about Deng time.” On the other hand, many called him the greatest finesse in history for pulling something off like this.

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Furthermore, his agent received a fair share of his praise as well. One user wrote, “His agent is a goat” and “His agent needs a raise.”