Doug Gottlieb: “I understand the sacrifice of working and your kids, it’s a really hard juggle. Bronny was playing on national television and LeBron wanted to be there. You’re fine and you can be there but --- this is like when Michael Jordan used to play 36 holes of golf then try and drop 50 on you to show that it wasn’t affecting him. But you’re 34, LeBron, you’re going to need EXTRA preparation for a game, not LESS prep.. This was an important game and he was AWFUL… You want a championship culture for your team, but you’re going to see your son play, and then you're showing up and waltzing through your prep. Who your best player is, is who your TEAM is, and LeBron’s team looked like a team whose rhythm was off and whose attention was diverted. Yes, I’m ripping LeBron for going to his son’s game. I understand that it was right down the road but so is every game his kid plays. You can do it, but you better perform at night and he did not. It’s sending a bad message to his team and it’s doing himself a disservice for a game he could have watched on TV.” (Full Audio Below)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb explain why he thinks Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James should probably focus more on his championship-starved Lakers team, then going out of his way to attend his 15-year-old son’s basketball games on the same day the Lakers play.
LeBron made news on Monday after attending his son Bronny James’ high school basketball game earlier in the day, reportedly making a 90-mile commute from Boston to Springfield, MA in a helicopter, before getting back to the stadium in time for the start of the primetime tip for the Martin Luther King Day Lakers vs. Celtics special.
The Lakers would end up getting massacred 139-107 by a Celtics team who came in sputtering, but a Boston team who would soon play like the 1996 Bulls in one of the most humiliating losses of LeBron’s career.
Gottlieb says LeBron's stunt sent the wrong message to a Lakers team whose had such a loser’s mentality the last decade. Gottlieb says LeBron messed with his usual game time preparations, and distracted himself from preparing for the Celtics to attend his son’s basketball game, when it's not like he's NOT had ample opportunities to attend Bronny's games in the past.
LeBron would finish the blowout with just 15 points on 5 of 12 shooting, with a -21 plus/minus.
Check out the audio below as Gottlieb details why LeBron is sending a bad message to his teammates by putting his own team second.