Utah Jazz announcers were not in a great mood as their team was absolutely destroyed by LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, 121-96.
Both James and Anthony Davis put up highlight-reel plays in the Lakers’ win. For his part, James was on the bench celebrating during the latter stages of the game. That included him gifting shoes to a couple young Lakers fans in Salt Lake City.
This apparently didn’t sit well with those calling the game for Utah.
Never afraid to respond to criticism, James clapped back against said announcers on Instagram Thursday morning.
“Imagine doing your job at the highest level to where you’re not needed anymore, giving your shoes to a lil girl and boy who you inspire and hoped you made proud that night, then cheering on your teammates cause you love seeing them succeed more than yourself only to be criticized while doing it,” James wrote. “People it’s the world we live in and you can’t let it ever stop you from your purpose in life. Negativity, bad energy, hate, envy, etc etc will try to bring you down throughout your journey and it’s up to you on how you handle it.”
James has been under a microscope since being considered the next all-time great during his high school days. There’s a lot of reasons that he can be criticized. Opining on pretty much every world event is one.
However, the criticism he received for making two young fans’ days is about as dumb as it gets. Don’t take your frustration out on James because his Lakers are the best team in the NBA and your team can’t keep pace with them.
LeBron was 100% correct to respond accordingly. The faux outrage displayed Wednesday night in Utah was absurd.