The Lakers have a 14-10 record with LeBron James and 11-6 without him. This doesn’t paint the picture of the 41-year-old leading his team to championship dreams. The issue worsens when he is easily outpaced and outjumped on the defensive end. Former NBA star turned podcaster Rashad McCants had called out King James previously, and he did so again this time with a video reference.

The tweet of the former star had the caption, “Eye in the sky never lies!!!!!” with the video from the Lakers and Trail Blazers game. Portland forward Toumani Camara drilled a 23-foot three-point jumper with 6:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. It was the way he scored that put LeBron James’ defense under the scanner. The Belgian star was marked by LeBron, but was able to slip behind him from the left side to the right.

It appeared James’ focus was on the ball and not on his marker. Since the other four Lakers stars were already guarding other players, it meant that the 25-year-old Camara had an uncontested shot, which extended their lead to 104-118. This is the leadership part is that McCants says James is not setting an example on defense.

As stated earlier, McCants has been very critical of the Lakers’ superstar in the past few weeks. He even questioned that age is used to hype the offense, but is used as an excuse on defense. “I don’t give a f—k how old he is. You’re on the f—ing court, you’re supposed to be playing f—king defense. JJ Redick can’t have a conversation with LeBron first? Why now? You’re LeBron James! As a coach, you go from the top… listen, it’s always gonna be LeBron’s team.”

Apart from the defensive lapses against the Trail Blazers, James’s lack of effort was also visible in the Lakers’ 119-96 loss to the Rockets. He posted a plus-minus of -33 in the loss to Houston, meaning the Lakers were outscored by 33 points with him on the court. In the first quarter, Rockets star 6-7 Amen Thompson easily grabbed the offensive board over 6-9, LeBron, which left the fans demanding more.

LeBron James’ agent tried to push down the narrative

Even last season, LeBron James had a defensive rating of 113.6 points allowed per 100 possessions. This was his lowest (worst) career defensive rating and ranked him 449th out of 493 qualified players, placing him in the lower 10% of the league in this metric. Yet, fans and analysts expect LeBron to put more effort, but his agent doesn’t think so.

“Normally it’s not the superstar guy that’s going to be your all-defensive guy,” Rich Paul said on his Game Over podcast. “Even in LeBron’s case, people get on him about the defense today, but we’ve seen it. If you have to depend on a 41-year-old, you’re in trouble, anyway.” Yes, the Lakers are in trouble.

Their defensive rating for December was 122.4, second only to the Utah Jazz, who were 127.4. That is why not only LeBron James, but the Lakers’ faithful criticize Doncic heavily for not defending well. However, Paul felt that the superstars on a team shouldn’t be burdened with the ones who carry defenses.