LeBron James seems to have a quiet confidence about the upcoming NBA season for the Los Angeles Lakers. Although he has been playing coy, he seems to love the depth, talent and skill around him. He hasn’t had such a rich cast to depend on in quite some time.
As he usually does, he has been taking it easy in the preseason. He has played in only two of the Lakers’ five preseason games so far. After playing 18 minutes in the first half on Friday against the Golden State Warriors, he was seen wearing sweats and eating on the bench.
Former Laker Michael Cooper took the all-time leading scorer to task, feeling he needs to “have respect for the game.”
Michael Cooper tells LeBron James to ‘respect the game’
“You’ve got to have respect for the game, man… He’s over there – I don’t mind the guy eating, but go eat in the locker room, and then when you come out, you come out and be part of the team, not just sit on the end of the… pic.twitter.com/wnTY7pO5rD
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 18, 2023
Given how polarizing James is, his fans likely will not care that he ate what appeared to be his dinner on the bench during a game, while his haters will claim it’s another example of him supposedly putting himself first ahead of the team.
Perhaps this was nothing more than a “get off my lawn” moment from one of the most integral members of the Showtime Lakers and a man who arguably deserves to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.