Almost one week after the incident, the NBA community keeps talking about the scuffle between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart, where the Los Angeles Lakers superstar hit the Detroit Pistons center in the face, which sparked a mad scuffle.
After that unfortunate event, LeBron was ejected for the second time in his career. He also received the first suspension in his 19-year tenure in the league. Stewart was suspended for two games, too, sparking big debates about whether LeBron is actually feared around the association.
The young player recently addressed the situation, saying he didn’t feel LeBron hitting him was an accident.
“I watched the film. Me personally, I didn’t feel like it was an accident, but it’s my last time addressing it. My main focus right now is on my team, my teammates, getting back to playing basketball.”
After the Los Angeles Lakers-Sacramento Kings duel on Friday night, the 4x NBA champion responded to those comments, reassuring reporters that he didn’t mean to hit Stewart in the face and that was just an accident. James said the ‘chop down’ was an attempt to get rid of the contact with the young center and nothing else (4:48).
“I don’t go into a game and make it an individual thing,” LeBron said when asked if he expected some sort of retaliation from Stewart. “I saw his comments today and he felt it was intentional or wasn’t an accident. The actual chop down was on purpose to get his arm off me, that part was on purpose, but the point of my hand hitting his face was not on purpose. You can literally go through numerous plays in the NBA where guys were chopping down on guys’ arms or hands trying to get them off of them. If you look at the play closely, he kind of got off balance when I chopped him down and that’s how his head went into my hand. So, it wasn’t intentional at all. I’ve never been that player, I’ve never ever tried to seek a face contact like that…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGudw4nO24U
The Lakers will face the Pistons this Sunday at Staples Center. In the aftermath of last Sunday’s incident, plenty of people thought Stewart will seek revenge the next time he faces LeBron, but his words make us think he’s ready to try to win the game and nothing else.
Perhaps he and LeBron will talk before, during, or after the game about the incident to bury the hatchet and end the drama. The Lakers need a victory after losing to the Sacramento Kings in triple overtime yesterday. Now it’s time to bounce back and demonstrate that the bad moment is behind them.
