Norman Powell went on a livestream with N3on, got asked which NBA team is the most overrated, and did not hesitate. “Bro, I’m gonna say the Lakers.”
You can imagine how that went over. Lakers fans found the clip within the hour and buried him. The most common accusation was clout chasing, which is a funny thing to say about a man who just made his first All-Star team and signed an eight-figure-a-year deal.
Here is the thing though. Powell did not say anything outrageous. He said the Lakers are overrated relative to expectations, and the expectations around that team right now are enormous.
He has earned the right to say it
Powell is not some end-of-bench guy popping off for attention. He averaged 21.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 58 games with the Miami Heat in 2025-26 while shooting 38 percent from three and 54.6 percent inside the arc. That is a legitimate first option scoring season on efficient volume.
That year got him his first All-Star nod at an age when most guys are trending the other direction. He already had a ring from the 2019 Toronto Raptors, so he is not short on credibility either.
Chicago paid up in July, signing him to a two-year deal worth $44.075 million with a team option on the back end. The Bulls wanted a proven scorer who can carry a bench unit or slide into the starting five, and they got one.
Add in the UCLA background and his years with the Clippers, and Powell has spent a big chunk of his life in Los Angeles. He knows exactly what the Lakers conversation sounds like from the inside. He also knows exactly what saying this out loud would do.
The take itself is defensible
The Lakers are in the middle of a real transition. LeBron James is gone, and the franchise has rebuilt around Luka Doncic, bringing in Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton to slot in alongside Doncic and Austin Reaves.
That is a roster full of good players, and it is also a roster that has never played a single meaningful game together. The national expectation is somewhere near contender status. Powell looked at that gap between the hype and the actual proven product and called it overrated. Hard to argue the logic.
What makes the backlash so predictable is that Lakers fans hear “overrated” and process it as “bad.” Those are different words. A team can be very good and still be rated higher than it deserves. That is literally what overrated means.
The best part is what happens next
The Bulls and Lakers will meet this season, and Powell just handed Crypto.com Arena a reason to boo him every time he touches the ball. He will love every second of it. Guys who have spent their careers proving people wrong tend to feed off exactly that.
There is also a version of this where Powell is just being honest on a livestream and everyone else is overreacting. Players talk like this constantly in private. The only difference here is that a camera was rolling and the Lakers happen to be the most emotionally defended franchise in American sports.
Powell will be fine. He has a new contract, a new team that actually wants him taking shots, and an All-Star season on his resume to back up his opinions. If the Lakers want to shut him up, they know where to find him.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.