LeBron James didn’t really screen his teammate, but it’s still funny

Stop the party, everyone. We can’t accuse LeBron James of signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers to deliberately sabotage his old team and benefit the Miami Heat. The fun’s over.

The harsh reality: LeBron is technically accurate when he says he didn’t mean to set a screen on new teammate Matthew Dellavedova when the Cavs played the Heat last Saturday. We can only accuse him of terrible defense.

“For non-basketball people,” James began with a smirk when asked about the apparent blooper before the Cavs played the Indiana Pacers in Cincinnati on Wednesday, “our coverage is for me to show and for Delly [Dellavedova] to go under me and we just didn’t get the call right at the time. Delly was supposed to slide under me and we kind of ran into each other.

“So, for non-basketball people, they like to critique everything that I do. It’s stupid.”

James is discussing a pick and roll coverage known as “hedging.” Allow our Doug Eberhardt to describe it:

The screener’s defender stays attached or within arms length of his man. That man (usually a big) jumps out on the ball handler just long enough to slow him down, while the original on-ball defender slides under the screen and attempts to meet the ball handler before he can turn the corner into the key.

An angry LeBron is pleading guilty to said breakdown. I believe him. No conspiracy here.

But: let’s take this down a notch. I may be underestimating humanity here, but I don’t think there’s anyone shouting LEBRON IS A CLOWNFRAUD THAT WILL NEVER WIN ANYTHING EVER AND CAN’T BE SEEN AS A GREAT PLAYER BECAUSE HE SET A SCREEN ON HIS OWN TEAMMATE IN HIS PRESEASON GAME. We just thought this was a funny play and we like to laugh.

Laugh with us, LeBron. It’s OK. You’re still pretty good at basketball no matter what.