LeBron James is a premier talent, someone that has consistently done things nobody else can since he arrived in the league in 2003. The King’s ability to take over games and carry mediocre rosters to success in the playoffs is second to none, but it seems like he can’t quite do that anymore at the age of 37.
And some of his poor habits on the court have now become harder to mask with the lack of success than they were before. LeBron James tends to give up on plays now and again, something he did against the Dallas Mavericks on multiple occasions during Tuesday’s loss. If this carries on, LeBron’s gracious reaction to the boos in the game before this one will become hard for him to keep up.
At one point in the first quarter, LeBron turned the ball over but instead of getting back on defense with his teammates in transition, James chose to complain to the referees instead about a potential foul that had been committed against him. The Mavericks took full advantage in transition, with Luka Doncic finding Maxi Kleber running to the cup in what was an emphatic alley-oop play.
Los Angeles Lakers fans were not happy with the play and other NBA fans also pointed out that this isn’t the first time James has done this. LBJ got called out by many on Reddit for not doing enough on defense after being the one to lose the ball.
NegativePositive: “If it makes Laker fans feel better, he pulled that stuff during championship years, too!”
BenDrake: “Name any other top 10 player that did this on the regular.”
JonA3531: “LeCoast in the regular season.”
Guwop25: “The same exact play just happened in the 2nd but it was a DFS 3 lol.”
DuffmanStillRocks: “Why play defense when you can yell at refs?”
angel-eag: “Bro did this last year in the playoffs so many times, lame sh*t.”
Manor002: “He has always done this. Annoyed the hell out of me when he was on the Heat. Like just get back on D, man.”
Phoenixapartment: “Its a terrible habit he has. Used to annoy me pretty bad as a Cavs fan.”
manateeking23: “Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant would never do that.”
SerenadeSwift: “Dude straight started a conversation back there mid-play lmao.”
TheLostKee: “People will think it’s silly but shit like is this is why Mike > LeBron.”
WhatYouProbablyMeant: “The ref beat him across the half-court line. Unacceptable.”
One of the fundamental things that fans want to see from their players and especially stars is effort and hustle, neither of which LeBron James displayed during this sequence, which explains why fans aren’t best pleased with it. If the Lakers can’t find a win soon, these sorts of incidents will start to look worse and worse and could affect how the fanbase reacts towards the end of the regular season.
