Photo: Lakers Fan Had Epic Sign At NBA Finals, LeBron James Reacts

LeBron James isn’t part of the NBA Finals. Directly. However, he made sure everyone felt his presence.

One particular photo became viral, and it shows a Lakers fan holding a sing that reads, “There is no Finals without the King!”

LeBron missed the playoffs for the first time since 2005, and he won’t play in the Finals for the first time in eight campaigns.

The fun part comes when you realize that LeBron commented on the photo.

Everyone knew that the playoffs couldn’t be the same without the King.

Missing LeBron isn’t something NBA stars are used to. “It’s just weird,” Draymond Green said. “More as a basketball fan than anything: ‘Damn, Bron not there.’ It’s super weird. You always relish the opportunity to play against a talent like that.”

Stephen Curry shares similar opinion. “Obviously the rest of the league continues to go, a lot of talent, a lot of great storylines, people chasing championships. But he’s had an amazing run. Pretty sure he’ll be able to reset for next year and regroup,” Curry said. “It’s just different [with James not in the postseason]. It’s different, but what is it? [Eight] straight Finals he went to? I’m sure it’s a different experience for him, for better or worse.”

Does Jalen Rose agree on this one?

“I wonder what it’d look like if the first round went back to best-of-five because [six] of the eight series won’t go six games,” said Rose, an ESPN analyst. “It also has me thinking what a 1-16 seeding would look like if we combined the conferences. There is a void. It’s almost like you walk out the door to get in the car and ‘Where are my keys?’ You have to go back in the house to get them. He’s a notable, iconic, philanthropic leader. To not have him in these game it’s going to affect some people’s interest who are casual fans.

“Each one of those teams has aspirations to not only make it to the conference finals without LeBron James, but to reach the NBA Finals. Toronto went out and got Kawhi [Leonard] knowing he can walk, Boston has Kyrie [Irving] that could possibly walk, Philly acquired [Jimmy] Butler and Tobias [Harris] and they could walk. This has set up a level of excitement and intrigue because whoever loses in this round is going to look at their season as a disappointment.”