Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has been one of the faces of the sport for over two decades now and has seen the game evolve in so many ways, both for the good and for the bad. He broke down one of the ways in which the NBA has worsened over his time in the league, which is the way superstars are covered.
He recently made comments saying that he understands why younger players like Anthony Edwards now would not have interest in being the face of the league when superstars tend to get almost universally negative coverage from talking heads and former players. He received immediate backlash for these comments, again receiving negative coverage as the face of the league.
In his 22nd season with an already cemented legacy as perhaps the greatest player in the history of the game, James has no issue fighting these battles on behalf of other players. So he took to social media to respond to the whole situation and call out some important issues:
Exactly made my point but anyways. Happy this convo has started. It ain’t about ‘face of the game” and it ain't about one person or one show, it's about the culture of basketball,, the most beautiful game in the world. Our game has never been better. Incredible young stars from…
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 1, 2025
Exactly made my point but anyways. Happy this convo has started. It ain’t about ‘face of the game” and it ain't about one person or one show, it's about the culture of basketball,, the most beautiful game in the world. Our game has never been better. Incredible young stars from…
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 1, 2025
Exactly made my point but anyways. Happy this convo has started. It ain’t about ‘face of the game” and it ain't about one person or one show, it's about the culture of basketball,, the most beautiful game in the world. Our game has never been better. Incredible young stars from…
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 1, 2025
He followed this up with going into a beautiful speech about the importance of the game and how he and other superstars — young and old — do their best to honor the sport every day, via ESPN:
“What matters to me, when it comes to my generation and the younger generation that’s in our league now, is that we play for the love the game. We’re not out here cheating the game. We’re putting the grind in, we’re putting the time in. We’ve always given props to the generation that came before us, always picked them up because we know without them it would not have been us. We’re just trying to carry on tradition, my generation. Me, Steph, KD, Russ, James, Kawhi, the rest of our crew. And then we got the younger generation that’s doing their thing as well. We love what we do. And it’s a responsibility for all of us to continue to push the game in a positive fashion for all of our fans all over America and all over the world. Because it’s the best, most beautiful game in the world. When you watch basketball, you’re basically listening to music. You’re listening to jazz, R&B, rap, heavy metal, everything with that. So it’s a beautiful game. We’re all in a position to play this game and we’re here for a reason, but we don’t ever take it for granted. I hope everyone sees that when we take the floor.”
James has always attempted to use his influence to make the sport better for other players and for the fans. Both parties have grown tired of the negative coverage that surrounds the NBA, often pushed ahead by former players, and LeBron has clearly had enough of it.
It will be interesting to see what kind of effect this moment has on the way the game is covered over the next few years. And if this finally sparks a large enough conversation for major changes in the NBA’s presentation to take shape.
LeBron James: Lakers hanging their hats on defense
On the court, LeBron James has led a complete turnaround for the Lakers, bringing them from the 24th overall defense prior to Jan. 15 to the best defense in the NBA in the 21 games since. The Lakers now, out of nowhere, have a defense-first identity.
LeBron spoke about that after L.A.’s fifth consecutive win by defeating the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night, saying they hang their hats on that end of the floor.
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