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“Can You Even Imagine Kobe Doing Something Like That?”: Lakers Fans Bewildered After LeBron James Refuses to Contest Tip Off vs Kings

Published 01/05/2022, 1:10 AM EST

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USA Today via Reuters

The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to find a consistent and conventional center from the start of the season. Now with Davis out for a long term, the Lakers are trying a new strategy to play LeBron James at the 5. Even at 37, LeBron is still making chase-down blocks, and he is still playing an absurd number of minutes every game, averaging the most on his team. Especially for his age, this sort of dedication has rarely been seen in the NBA.

However, what LeBron did today can be described by most fans as unthinkable and almost impossible to be coming from him. They have always lauded LeBron James for his consistency of effort on the court. Nevertheless, probably for the first time in his career, LeBron James blatantly refused to jump for the ball at tip-off. This did not sit well with the Lakers fans who have all their hopes on LeBron James to carry this team.

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NBA fans react to a bizarre incident at Lakers vs Kings tip-off

This is how some Lakers fans responded to LeBron’s lack of effort at tip-off.

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What does this mean for LeBron James?

LeBron James’ age has been the driving factor of almost every narrative about him. From their roster to his minutes on the floor, age was the consistent factor that every analyst was considering while looking at the Lakers. For the longest time this season, LeBron defied all the odds for his age and never lacked consistency or effort.

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USA Today via Reuters

Even in this game against the Kings, LeBron James led the scoring for the Lakers with 31 points, along with important contributions from Russell Westbrook and Malik Monk. While De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield bothered the Lakers with their scoring, they just couldn’t take the Kings all the way.

USA Today via Reuters

Needless to say, LeBron James is still the best player on the Lakers’ roster. However, for how long will he be able to maintain that with consistency is a question that remains to be answered. This might be the first sign of his age finally impacting his game. Is this the beginning of the end of a stellar and immaculate NBA career? Let us know what you think about it.

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Written by:

Chaitanya Dadhwal

506Articles

One take at a time

Chaitanya Dadhwal is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. Even though his journalism is driven by his desire to understand both sides of an argument and give a neutral perspective, he is biased towards Houston Rockets and Arsenal, and he has shown exactly how loyal he can be through tough times. Currently a Law student at Jindal Global Law School, he aims to have his own sports management firm one day and enjoys rap music during his time off.
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