LeBron James tallied 29 points, five rebounds, and four assists in the Los Angeles Lakers' 126-111 loss to the Houston Rockets earlier this week. James Harden erupted for 50 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in a game that seemed to test the fortitude of the LeBron-led LA Lakers.

Fox Sports' Marcellus Wiley was critical of James’s leadership in the loss, attributing the Lakers' lack of mental fortitude to James’ attitude towards calls made against the Lakers. Wiley felt James needed to act with a sense of toughness around the young, impressionable Lakers roster to instill a sense of grit and toughness that seemed lacking in the loss to Houston.

“If our leader is going to go there and complain…might as well,” said Wiley on Speak For Yourself.

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently 18-11 and hold the fourth seed in a competitive Western Conference. With every game being crucial towards securing a playoff spot for a historic franchise that has gone through a five-year playoff drought, James will be held accountable for a lot of the Lakers' deficiencies throughout the season

Performance-wise, James is averaging 28.2 points a game along with 7.8 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game, his highest scoring season since 2009-10 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. James continues to be an athletic anomaly displaying basketball excellence wherever he goes. The stigma that the Lakers young roster is underperforming keeps being pinned to James’s ability as a leader to inspire toughness from analysts like Wiley as well as former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who was also on the show and agreed with Wiley..

In a season that could see the Lakers finally end their playoff drought, critics are watching LeBron James’s every move as both the successes and the pitfalls of the season will eventually be linked to a chapter in James’s legacy.