The Los Angeles Lakers were able to pull out a victory on MLK Day against an excellent Oklahoma City Thunder team, taking home a 112-105 win thanks to huge performances from Anthony Davis and LeBron James, who dropped 27 and 25 points, respectively. The win did not come without its fair share of drama — but this time, the drama wasn't about the Lakers' performance on the court, but rather, an odd incident on the bench involving James during the third quarter of the contest.

With 2:32 remaining in the third quarter of the game, the Lakers called a timeout after Thunder wing Jalen Williams made a dunk to cut their lead to two, 76-74. This gave the Lakers the opportunity to get James his customary rest before going out to start the final period. But just as the Lakers star was putting on his long-sleeve warmer at the end of the bench, a fan wearing a black beanie and jacket came all the way down to the bench and tried to embrace James, even putting his hand on James' shoulder as if they were pals.

LeBron James, in disbelief, pushed off the man before security intervened and kicked the man out of Crypto.com Arena for a potentially dangerous act. The Lakers star saw to it that security had the “intruder” escorted out of the premises.

Via @Fernadad1 and ClutchPoints Twitter (X):

It's a bit confusing how the security personnel, during a timeout no less, was able to let the man bypass all sorts of protocol to get to LeBron James. It's not quite clear what the man wanted from the Lakers star, but the last thing the NBA needs is for both players and fans to get unimpeded access to each other after the debacle at Detroit nearly 20 years ago.

It's also a matter of player safety; after all, who knows what the man could have brought with him inside the arena? All signs, of course, point to the fact that the man simply may have been a fan and like in other sports (football) just wanted to get a close-up interaction with one of the greatest of all time. But given the number of security personnel in the building, there is simply no excuse for what happened here.