Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has made some waves recently by not sitting in huddles during timeouts, most recently during his team's loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon.
ESPN analyst and former NBA player Jalen Rose does not think what James is doing is a good look, calling it disrespectful to the coaches even if it is not necessarily disrespectful to his teammates:
LeBron not sitting in the huddle may not be disrespectful to his teammates, but @JalenRose says it is to the coaches. pic.twitter.com/WTpMF5DATA
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) March 19, 2019
Rose makes a great point here.
While James doesn't really owe it to his teammates to take part in huddles, he does owe it to the coaching staff, and by sitting away from the circle, LeBron is indirectly saying that what Luke Walton and the coaches say doesn't matter.
Of course, it has been a tumultuous season overall in Los Angeles, and one can make the argument that none of this even really matters because the Lakers aren't going to the playoffs anyway. But as Rose points out, if other players on the team were doing this, it wouldn't be tolerated.
James' behavior also indicates that Walton's days as head coach are numbered, even if that is something we probably knew already. It seems hard to imagine Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka bringing Walton back for another year after this disastrous season, and with LeBron on board, Walton's return is even less likely.
Expected by most to be a playoff team this season, the Lakers currently own a record of 31-39, meaning that James will be missing the postseason for the first time since 2005.
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