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LeBron James has nothing to play for but pride over the final two weeks of the regular season. If the four-time MVP's ongoing gloating about his esteemed level of recent play is any indication, though, don't expect him to take it easy.
The morning after dropping 27 points and nine assists on 11-of-19 shooting in the Los Angeles Lakers' win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night, James took to Instagram, posting a photo of himself en route to a soaring dunk to troll detractors who believe the 34-year-old is “superwashed.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvo_9JNgwZU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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James' nightly athletic exploits over the last 16 seasons have made it easy to take some of his most impressive feats for granted. On the play above, for instance, he took off from just outside the dotted circle for a flying dunk through the teeth of the Hornets' halfcourt defense. How many players in the league are capable of such a feat during the course of a competitive NBA game – let alone one whose precipitous decline, detractors say, has finally begun?
James' first season in Los Angeles obviously didn't go as planned. But using the team's failure to make the playoffs as evidence of James finally taking a step back is a disingenuous way of serving the narrative of his supposed fall from the top of the game's individual hierarchy. The Lakers were in fourth place when James went down with a groin injury on Christmas, and had fallen to ninth in the Western Conference by the time he returned approximately a month later – five months earlier than his physical therapist recently said was a proper amount to time to recover.
Washed? No way. Whether or not James remains the game's best player, though, we won't find out until next season.
