Don’t quote LeBron James out of context.
Sam Amick learned that the hard way after James ripped The Athletic journalist for the way he reported on a recent interview with the LA Lakers superstar surrounding the team’s roster plans.
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“Hey Sam actually my patience isn’t waning. You make it sound like I’m frustrated when I’m really not. I told you over and over, my job is focused on the guys in the locker room, my job isn’t the roster. That’s the reality of that conversation. And I said what I said with the,” James tweeted out on Monday morning (all times AEDT).
Mon, 09 Jan
Monday January 9th
“Upmost respect and calmness cause that’s the mood I’m in!” Your welcome! 5 game winning streak.”
After the Lakers’ fifth-straight win on Sunday over the Sacramento Kings to suddenly sit on the brink of play-in qualification despite being without Anthony Davis for the last 12 games with a foot injury, James opened up on the state of play at the franchise as it weighs up trading its future draft picks for more win-now pieces to make a push this season.
The repeated message from James, who’s in the midst of a hot streak – averaging 38 points per game since turning 38 on December 31 during a stretch when LA has been undefeated – was that it wasn’t his job to worry about potential front office moves .
“Man listen, I play the game. I worry about who’s in the locker room. I can’t — it’s not my … it’s not my job. I can’t do anyone else’s job,” he told The Athletic.
However, after a brief pause to end the interview, James reportedly shouted from nearly 20 feet away: “Y’all know what the f*** should be happening. I don’t need to talk.”
While Amick was simply doing his job, it seems like James is perfectly content with where things stand in LA despite that final comment, which could be interpreted in a number of ways.
Of course, the Lakers started the season an abysmal 2-10 and have since gone 17-11 to loom as a genuine playoff threat, especially if Davis, upon returning from injury, can recapture his insane heights earlier this season when he was in the form player in the NBA.
But the focus around the 38-year-old James is legitimate in arguably the greatest player of all time’s twilight years, recently admitting playing basketball without winning isn’t in his DNA.
James last off-season signed a two-year, $97.1 million extension that has a player option for the 2024/25 season. He’s averaging 29.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.7 assists this season and continues to defy father time.
The bleak reality around the Lakers finishing with a poor record this campaign is that the New Orleans Pelicans have rights to swap first-round picks with them from the Davis trade in 2019. The only other future first rounders the Lakers own are their 2027 and 2029 selections .
LA spent the pre-season mulling sending those picks to the Indiana Pacers along with Russell Westbrook’s expiring $47.1 million contract in exchange for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, but ultimately stood still in hopes a better deal would come along.
The franchise again has big front office decisions to make in balancing having its season alive and well and James and Davis still in their prime, with its long-term future.
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