LeBron James has been one of the most vocal critics over the past year of the NBA’s decision to rush the start of the current season.
The Los Angeles Lakers star predicted that the lack of proper rest time would manifest itself in countless injuries – and thus far he has proven to be correct. Based on Luka Doncic’s lingering issues and Kyrie Irving’s troubling prognosis, it’s hard to argue with his rationale.
This past week, Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal was asked about James’ sentiments regarding players being rushed back into the current season.
O’Neal’s commentary proved to be a pretty blatant shot at James.
“When you’re living in a world where 40 million people have been laid off and I’m making $200 million, you won’t get no complaining from me,” he said in an interview with CNBC.
“I’d play back to back to back to back to back. I’m not knocking what anybody said, but me personally, I don’t complain and make excuses because real people are working their tail off and all we gotta do is train two hours a day, and then play a game for two hours at night and make a lot of money…So my thought process is a little different.”
This comes on the heels of a recent tweet storm from James where he once again referenced his old comments about rest and injuries.
For what it’s worth, as far as the league is concerned, there is no problem here. In a conversation with Marc Stein of the New York Times, NBA spokesman Mike Bass insisted that injury rates were unchanged from 2019.
“Injury rates were virtually the same this season as they were during 2019-20 while starter-level and All-Star players missed games due to injury at similar rates as the last three seasons,” he said.
“While injuries are an unfortunate reality of our game, we recognize the enormous sacrifices NBA players and teams have made to play through this pandemic.”
It will be interesting to see how health patterns change next year, when everyone will have much longer to prepare for the season.
Meanwhile, based on what James has said is the Lakers’ biggest offseason priority, it’s safe to assume that O’Neal’s recent commentary won’t sway him all that much.
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