The Los Angeles Lakers season has been a drag, and I know that LeBron James has seen better days. With all of his success, he’s probably handling things a lot better than expected, though. However, Wednesday night was a new low for the team. They dropped a much-needed home game to the Indiana Pacers by a score of 111-104.
LeBron turned in another strong game with 30 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists. Tonight was one where they played a bigger lineup than their one in Monday’s defeat of the Utah Jazz.
Like many fans, James knows what’s going on and sees all the news. Tonight, he spoke with the media postgame about his thoughts, or lack thereof, about their late performance and coaching rumors (h/t Jacob Rude):
LeBron on the coaching staff
“Coaching staff has been great. They’ve put us in a position to succeed and we have to take care of business… There’s no blame.”
— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) January 20, 2022
LeBron James, after fielding questions about Frank Vogel’s job security: “If you got something to ask me besides trying to shit on somebody, I’ll answer those.”
— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) January 20, 2022
Well, there you have it!
Surprisingly, Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reported that Vogel is safe for now:
Los Angeles Lakers will not be making a personnel move at this juncture and Frank Vogel will travel with the team tomorrow to coach in Orlando on Friday, league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 20, 2022
In the past, LeBron has been known to be passive-aggressive on social media and in his interviews. During his time with the Miami Heat, he allegedly pursued Pat Riley to replace Erik Spoelstra. In his days with the Cleveland Cavaliers, there were Arthur memes and Tweets towards teammates. James has come a long way since those days.
James also shared his thoughts on Russell Westbrook being benched in the last 3 minutes and 52 seconds on the game. Well, he sort of shared his thoughts before taking off for the cinema:
He then left the press conference to “go watch a movie with my wife” so he may be finding out Vogel is fired via notification like all of us https://t.co/OXmFIJrL5O
— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) January 20, 2022
It’s not a surprise that LeBron isn’t engaging in the drama coming from the organization. His job is to put the team in a position to succeed through his performance. You can bet that at some point, his thoughts will be plucked if the franchise goes in a different direction.
It’ll be interesting to see if and how LeBron’s post-game comments change if the losses continue to stack up. For now, he doesn’t seem to want to throw anyone under the bus.
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