LeBron James apparently felt slighted by the Los Angeles Lakers over a seemingly insignificant issue.
The Lakers star James got upset with the team after a win in March over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported on Wednesday. On March 31, the Lakers defeated the Cavaliers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif. by a final score of 127-113.
That win marked James’ NBA record-setting 1,229 career win (regular season and playoffs) to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time mark of 1,228. However, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka chose instead to give the game ball that night to head coach JJ Redick, who picked up his 100th career coaching victory with the win as well.
James was reportedly angered by not getting the game ball and saw it as “yet another example of the Lakers taking him for granted.” McMenamin even adds that James proceeded to storm off into the night without even so much as changing clothes after the perceived slight.
That certainly comes across as a rather petty mindset by James. The NBA’s all-time wins record is fairly obscure, was little publicized at the time James broke it, and feels like a rather arbitrary achievement at that. On top of that, the game ball ended up going to another deserving member within the same organization in Redick, so it is not like James’ record ball was just chucked into the dumpster.
But after completing eight seasons in Los Angeles, James has already developed a laundry list of complaints about how the Lakers have seemingly insulted him. Last summer, we heard that James had his feelings hurt by the team over multiple issues, and now it remains to be seen whether or not he will be back on the Lakers as an impending free agent this offseason.
