LeBron James completely lost his mind in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ Game 4 victory to avoid being swept in their best-of-seven series against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers took control early in the fourth quarter with a 15-point lead. But James had a season coming up and was well aware of Denver’s ability to erase double-digit deficits, so he wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
After James brushed the ball away from Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the ball flew out of bounds before James could grab it. James knew Denver would get the ball. However, the Lakers forward insisted that the ball never left his hands and that head coach Darvin Ham should have challenged the play.
LeBron James was furious that Dervin Ham didn’t challenge this out-of-field call 😳
— Clutch Points (@ClutchPoints) April 28, 2024
LeBron James furious with Durvin Ham leaked audio:
“Try to play shit!” pic.twitter.com/mIlJqnfhDX
— LegendZ (@legendz_nba) April 28, 2024
The Nuggets scored immediately after inbounding the ball. If Ham had contested the play as James said, at least he would have had time to put together a good defense against that play.
But unfortunately, he wasn’t.
ESPN announcer Dave Pash was less than sympathetic to James.
“He made the problem worse because he wasn’t paying attention, and Denver got an easy basket,” Pash explained.
Pash is not wrong. James should have kept playing. But I don’t think anyone wants to hear this, but James is absolutely right to call for this play to be challenged.
Lakers forward LeBron James flicks the ball away from Nuggets center Nikola Jokic on April 27, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP)
This was an elimination game. The Nuggets are the defending champions and could easily come back from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter. Hamm in particular had star center Anthony Davis inexplicably sitting on the bench for most of the fourth quarter.
Of course, that call must be challenged.
In this case, just because James was right doesn’t mean he’s right about social justice issues, the national anthem, Malcolm X, China, police, guns, or any of the myriad other political issues about which he’s clearly ignorant.
Like the Pope, James is infallible only when speaking about issues within his expertise and authority. And despite his stupidity on virtually every issue other than basketball, James knew basketball and was completely right about this.
In the end, James regained his composure and the Lakers managed to avoid elimination with a 119-108 victory. The Lakers will play the Nuggets in an elimination game Monday night at 10pm EST in Denver.
