With the wins coming in and the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers shutting teams down on a nightly basis, the vibes are as good as they’ve ever been during the LeBron James era of the franchise history. And it was not long ago that things looked like they may never see sunny days again after injuries and trade rumors torpedoed their season.
But even before LeBron got hurt last season, there was a growing belief in basketball circles that him playing defense was a thing of the past. Even his best Cleveland teams were never elite defensively and it was basically an unspoken form of load management, within games. But James read all the headlines over the seven months that he was away from the NBA lights and he’s even using that perception in arguments with the referees.
Thanks to a fan filming court side at the right time, we have footage of LeBron joking to the referee that he may have heard “he doesn’t play defense” but that this season is “a new year.”
This is the kind of stuff that makes things like LeBron’s “#WashedKing” comments more acceptable, when basically everyone had previously accepted that he wouldn’t play defense in the regular season. This season, James has flipped the script on his defense as he is a key part of the NBA’s best defense while he is also leading the NBA in assists for the first time in his career.
LeBron may have given the comments he received a name and a title, but as he pointed out last night, he does have a bit of point: his defense has been different this season.
