The 2022-23 NBA season commenced on Tuesday with a double opener. Speaking of the season opener, despite being one of the worst teams in the league last season, the Los Angeles Lakers faced off against the Golden State Warriors. The reason was quite obvious as fans wanted to see the battle between LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
Although the Warriors ended up winning the game pretty easily, fans still got to see LeBron James play a dominant game. The King finished the game with 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists. He also shot 48% from the field, but his performance didn’t help the Lakers win the game.
As a result, many are labeling James’ performance as nothing but an attempt to fluff his stats in his quest to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, which is one of the most sought-out records.
NBA Analyst Calls Out LeBron James For His Performance Against The Warriors
There are many NBA analysts who have a tendency to hate on LeBron James regardless of how he plays in the league. In recent years, Chris Broussard has seemingly developed that reputation as well. To prove that right, he recently talked about James’ performance against the Warriors and berated the 4x NBA MVP for putting up ’empty stats.’
(Starts at 7:05):
“LeBron had 31 [points], 14 [rebounds] and 8 [assists] and had zero impact on the game! I wanna watch a few weeks of these before I declare LeBron’s no longer a top 10 player in the league. Last night, he didn’t look like a top-10 player to me. When the game was in the balance, he was nowhere. He was pacing himself, he wasn’t doing much at times ‘cause of his age. And obviously, he’s not defending as he once did.
He’s gonna break Kareem’s record and that’s gonna be awesome. But you can’t look at LeBron’s numbers, just like you couldn’t look at Westbrook’s last year, 18 [points], 7[rebounds], and 7[assists] and say he played well. Anybody who does that, you’re not really watching what’s happening.”
At the end of the day, LeBron’s stats against the Warriors were one of the few things that made the game entertaining for the Laker Nation. Also, James is all set to turn 38 years old soon and is still one of the best players in the league. So it seems a bit out of line to call him out for his excellent game against the Warriors.
