The Los Angeles Lakers got their season back underway on Thursday night. Well, sort of, considering it was the first of three scrimmage games set to be played in the NBA bubble ahead of eight seeding games followed immediately by the start of the playoffs.
LeBron James and company went up against Luka Doncic's Dallas Mavericks and showed a bit of what to expect in the coming months. James and Anthony Davis played well in only a half of play finishing with 12 points apiece, but the Lakers ultimately fell to the Mavericks, 108-104.
Although the Lakers lost on Thursday in a meaningless game, the postgame interviews with James and Davis addressed nothing about what happened on the floor in Orlando. Instead, both players spoke about social injustice with LeBron emphasizing the need for police officers involved in Breonna Taylor's murder to be arrested. Davis, who spoke after James, talked about his teammate's impact in getting the word out to stop these tragic events from happening.
“He's the top player in the league,” Davis said of LeBron. “He speaks on a lot of issues. Voices his opinion on a lot of topics. When he speaks, his name and his word hold a lot of weight and so when he speaks, a lot of people listen.
“I'm just happy I'm on his side and get a lot of knowledge from him and learn from him and kinda be there and speak out with him. When he speaks, the whole world listens.”
Much like NBA superstars of the past in Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, when they would speak out about something they feel is wrong or needs to be corrected, people tend to listen. LeBron is in the same category as his voice is the loudest in the league, and he's not staying quiet in these tough times.
Davis, along with some other Lakers teammates, have been vocal following LeBron's lead during their time in the bubble, and that is likely to continue as they try to use their platform to create systemic change in this country. Tonight's postgame press conference is possibly the start of this conversation continuing as players try to get their voices heard on a national or worldwide scale.
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