The recently-concluded NBA All-Star draft was interesting, to say the least. Kevin Durant knows this. One of the moments that stood out came at the tail end of the draft when the last two remaining players happened to be the Utah Jazz duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, who will be captaining Team LeBron this weekend, has spoken out about how this development came to be.
For a bit of context, it was LeBron James who picked first, while Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant made his selection after ‘Bron. The pair took turns picking their players, which eventually led to Mitchell and Gobert being the only two remaining players left on the board:
The last two players left on the board are from the team with the best record in the NBA… pic.twitter.com/laRo5SkYSg
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) March 5, 2021
The Jazz currently have the best record in the NBA today, and right now, they are looking like the top team in the league. As such, conspiracy theories have emerged as to how LeBron James and Kevin Durant may have purposely left the Utah pair out as a knock on the Jazz.
According to LeBron James, though, this is utter nonsense:
“There’s no slander to the Utah Jazz,” LeBron James said, via Ben Golliver of the Washington Post. “You’ve got to understand, just like in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. As great as Karl Malone and John Stockton was, we would never pick those guys in video games.”
While LeBron James came out to defend Mitchell's and Gobert's honor, he did take a shot at the Jazz franchise as a whole. Simply put, The King seemed to imply that he simply didn't like the Utah Jazz. This is a spicy subplot before the upcoming weekend in Atlanta, and no one can deny it.
The All-Star weekend is always a fun-filled series of events with a very friendly vibe going around. Nevertheless, there is always some room for a bit of smack talk, especially with LeBron James in the mix.
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