Lance Stephenson: LeBron James’ trash talk is ‘a sign of weakness’
Somebody finally found one!
Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
LeBron James isn’t known as a trash-talker, so when the four-time NBA MVP spent the final three quarters of Saturday’s Game 3 comeback win over the Indiana Pacers chirping at Lance Stephenson, Stephenson took note and called it a “sign of weakness,” according to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
Stephenson said he still regarded James as “the best player in the game,” but that he usually does not engage in trash talk. James was called for an offensive foul early in the second quarter on Stephenson, and from there on out, James often taunted Stephenson after a big play, Spears said.
From Spears:
“To me I think it’s a sign of weakness because he never used to say nothing,” Stephenson said after Indiana’s practice on Sunday. “I used to always be the one who would say, ‘I’m going to do something to get you mad.’ I feel like it’s a weakness. I feel like I’m doing something right and getting under his skin.”
Pacers-Heat
Notably, former Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks forward DeShawn Stevenson picked a similar beef with James during a playoff run. Stevenson called James overrated (a claim the current Stephenson was careful not to make), and James’ Cavaliers beat Stevenson’s Wizards in the playoffs three years in a row.
Stevenson mostly mellowed after leaving Washington but acknowledged a tiny sliver of it lingered when they ran into each other in the NBA Finals as members of the Mavericks and Heat in 2010. Dallas won, and Stevenson mostly let it go, or at least to the degree of which he can let go of anything.
Stevenson said he felt those feelings and subsequently took shots at James because of the frustration of his season ending three years in a row with James on the other end. As the current Eastern Conference finals stand, James and Miami are two wins away from ending Stephenson’s season for the third straight year. From Spears:
“It’s like our big brothers have taken over. We got to live up to the challenge, keep fighting and hopefully we can beat our big brother.”
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