LeBron James seems to forget that he missed the playoffs last year

LeBron James may be forgetting something about how his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers went.

James quote-tweeted a tweet on Monday that repeated a critical statement about the Lakers star’s career. Some critics have said that James had so much success for most of his NBA career because he played in the Eastern Conference, which has been weaker than the West.

One of James’ friends mocked that line of thinking by throwing up that quote on Twitter.

“The East is easy. He won’t do that in the West”

— PR (@pr_RWTW) July 20, 2020

James responded by saying he heard that criticism for 15 years.

Bro I swear I heard that for 15 years! https://t.co/vj8WWTVgDB

— LeBron James (@KingJames) July 20, 2020

Now that he has Anthony Davis on his team, he and his Lakers are leading the West. However, the playoffs haven’t begun yet, and the competition in the conference will be tough. The other thing is James is acting like last year didn’t happen.

His Lakers went 37-45 and missed the playoffs, marking the first time since 2005 that James missed the postseason. Yes, the team had injuries and James shut it down early, but that’s the point: the West was so tough last year that you had to be 14 games over .500 to make the playoffs, whereas in the East, the Pistons made the playoffs with a .500 record. Had James been in the East, he probably would have made the playoffs again.

Ultimately, both statements can be true: James is a great player who would have won in either conference and the East was significantly weaker than the West for most of James’ career, which eased his path to success.