LeBron James didn’t see Jordan Bell throw himself an alley-oop against the Mavericks live during the game, but he offered up his opinion on the situation that has everyone up in arms anyway.
LeBron James doesn’t care that Jordan Bell threw an alley-oop to himself
James says the Mavericks should have stopped Bell.
If you happened to be sleeping under a rock, you probably missed the play Bell made. Late in the game with the bench cleared and the result virtually decided, Bell blocked a three point attempt, got an outlet pass and threw himself a lob off the glass with just a few minutes left in the game.
There were some who took issue with Bell’s actions, including Rick Carlisle. Steve Kerr walked over to Carlisle after the game to apologize for Bell’s actions, but Carlisle reportedly walked right past him visibly frustrated with what happened according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
Naturally, James was asked about his opinion on the matter the next day. And his response was basically “get a stop.” (via Chris Fedor:)
“I mean, listen, coach is always telling us to play till the end, play till the final buzzer. But we also have a code as well in our league that, you talk about no showboating. I don’t know man. Listen, we’re all men. Stop me from dunking. We’re not trying to hurt nobody.”
James wasn’t done.
“Trying to play hard until the final buzzer. Would it have been OK if he had laid the ball up? Get mad because he threw it off the glass and caught it? Would he have been mad if he threw it off the glass and missed it? There wouldn’t have been no conversation. So, you play the game until it’s over. Yeah he threw it off the glass, dunked it, so what?”
Play better and this doesn’t happen
James knows about the unspoken code that comes with being an NBA player. Normally, it’s frowned upon to showboat when the game is already in hand. Things like spectacular dunks on a fast break or crazy three-point attempts are viewed as showing up the opponent.
But James’ message is simple here — if you compete well enough, then the score doesn’t get out of hand. If the score never gets out of hand, Bell doesn’t have the opportunity to dunk like that.
Was Bell showing off in that moment? Absolutely. But NBA players are paid to show off their skills in the heat of competition. The game wasn’t over, and there’s no rule that says Bell can’t pull off a dunk like that.
James is the vice president of the National Basketball Players Association. He has a firm grip on the pulse of the league, and if he feels that way, then I’m sure there are a number of players who do as well.
Like anything else, there will be opposing opinions, but at the end of the day, James is right. If you’re not getting blown out, this doesn’t happen.
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