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LeBron James and his feet were the news of the night in the NBA on Wednesday.
Utah Jazz announcers were furious with LeBron for his disrespectful celebration after taking his shoes off in the Lakers’ blowout win. Before that, James was called on the carpet, by, well, everyone, for one of the most obvious travels in NBA history to go uncalled.
Proof that refs will never call a travel on LeBron pic.twitter.com/GHdir67l4l
— JzoSports (@JzoSports) December 5, 2019
During the third quarter of the game, a fan was heckling James about the non-call and LeBron could be heard on the broadcast telling the fan, “Yeah, I know that was bad. That was real bad. I didn’t even know I did it until I saw it at halftime. That’s the worst I’ve ever done. Yeah, that was f**ked up. I feel bad for them though”
LeBron to a fan about his no-call travel/double-dribble: “Yeah I know that was bad. That was real bad. I didn’t even know I did it until I saw it at half-time. That’s the worst I’ve ever done. Yeah, that was f-cked up. I feel bad for them though.” 😂 https://t.co/YNffJPN1t9
— Yoni (@OriginalYoni) December 5, 2019
Following the game, reporters were quick to bring up James’ ridiculous walk and he explained what happened while admitting just how bad it was.
“It was the worst thing, probably one of the worst things I’ve ever done in my career,” LeBron told the media. “I didn’t even realize I did it until halftime, to be honest. One of my coaches showed me. I didn’t even realize I did it.”
James explained that the travel happend because he was distracted by the action underneath the basket.
“I think at the same time, I was watching the underneath play, and KCP and Donovan got into it. KCP started to run, and then Donovan bumped into him, he fell on the ground,” said LeBron. “I think I was ready to pass the ball, and my brain just kind of just, I had a malfunction. I really had a malfunction,” adding, “I feel bad for the refs on that one because they’ll probably get a write-up on that or something. That was pretty bad.”
Don’t feel too bad, King. Bad officiating across all sports is an epidemic these days and it needs to be addressed.