There are no other players like Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, in part because he is still able to play All-NBA basketball in his 22nd season at 40 years old. With the newest star, Luka Doncic, in town, it looks like James may even be able to play longer with a lessened offensive workload.
Unfortunately, the four-time champion is currently sidelined due to a groin strain, which derailed his rhythm on both sides of the ball. In total, James is averaging 25 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 8.5 assists on 51.7% from the field and 38.4% from 3-point range this season.
Those are numbers are impressive and bode well for L.A.’s chances of potentially making a deep postseason run with James playing like that, accompanied by Doncic. However, actor Jason Sudeikis shared a story where he got the best of the Lakers star and scored on him while rehearsing for Saturday Night Live, via New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce:
There is a sketch that we did, characters Bill and I did a couple of times. Where I play a stagehand, who is kind of a dick to people. We did it to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, we did it with Paul Rudd and we did it with LeBron and I challenged him to one-on-one in the sketch. In rehearsal, I did go by him and then went up and he didn’t know I was going to do a reverse layup. And I did score on him on an 8-foot goal. Oh yeah, he was 100% [trying]. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he was definitely trying, you can’t turn that off. It was funny because Don Roy King, who was our director at the time, who I just saw at the 50th [SNL special] came up and literally brought it up. He goes, ‘If you ever need someone to vouch for this, I know it happened.’ Like thank you, it sucks being the one telling this, you know keeping this apocryphal story alive. You know, I’d prefer it to be someone else, but so be it.”
Not many people can say that they have scored on the all-time leading scorer in the league’s history, but Sudeikis is in that handful as he caught James off guard. This is certainly a story that the actor is not going to let fade away anytime soon, which he shouldn’t, regardless of this taking place during a rehearsal.
LeBron James: Lakers can compete with anyone, but not at Celtics level yet
After the seismic Luka Doncic trade, many speculated that the Lakers would not be able to contend this season. However, that narrative began to switch as L.A. went on an eight-game winning streak.
Although, when the purple and gold lost to the Boston Celtics, snapping their streak, LeBron James shared that he thinks they can compete with anyone. However, he added the Lakers are not quite on the level of the reigning champions.
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