LeBron James hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2005, but the Lakers are heading into the final stretch of the season with a postseason absence being a real possibility.
On Saturday, LeBron called out his teammates for the lack of urgency following a loss to the Pelicans. LeBron also said that injuries have hurt the Lakers’ chemistry.
While LeBron was reasonable on both points, one league executive felt that LeBron was leaving out a key detail.
Speaking to Bleacher Report, an anonymous league executive blamed LeBron’s comments about Anthony Davis for killing the Lakers’ chemistry. He even suggested that the NBA All-Star draft didn’t help matters with LeBron joking about the entire Davis tampering saga.
Via Bleacher Report:
“He killed the [Lakers’] chemistry,” one NBA executive said. “He shouldn’t have been so public about it. Even during the All-Star draft, he laughed about [wanting Davis to be his teammate].”
Of course, there’s plenty of irony in a league exec publicly criticizing LeBron for being “so public” with his comments. It seems like forever ago since the Pelicans leaked every Los Angeles trade proposal to tank the Lakers’ chemistry, and I’d blame that more than LeBron himself.
