During the Lakers 121-96 victory over the Jazz on Wednesday, Los Angeles cruised into the closing moments with an easy victory. The Lakers had crushed the Jazz in this regular season contest and were doing what any team does in the closing moments of a blowout victory and that’s rest their starters. With the bench in, and a victory well earned, LeBron James decided that his night was finished. Near the front row he saw some children attending the game. James decided that he wanted to give them his shoes.
This probably, of course, made the evening for those kids. They got to see an NBA game up close and are going home with a pair of shoes from one of the greatest players ever. A nice fun story. Well, a nice fun story for everyone but the Jazz broadcasters. The Utah based team felt that James not wearing shoes in the closing moments of the game while celebrating a block on the court was disrespectful because it was clearly James indicating that he wasn’t going to have to play again. James heard the criticisms after the game and posted his response to it on Instagram.
Imagine doing your job at the highest level to where you’re not needed anymore, giving your shoes to a lil girl and boy who you inspire and hoped you made proud that night, then cheering on your teammates cause you love seeing them succeed more than yourself only to be criticized while doing it. People it’s the world we live in and you can’t let it ever stop you from your purpose in life. Negativity, bad energy, hate, envy, etc etc will try to bring you down throughout your journey and it’s up to you on how you handle it. I handle it by simply saying “Thank You” with a (smile) on my face and continue to push forward while doing it! LIVE.LAUGH.LOVE
It’s hard to not agree with James in this situation. The broadcasters even acknowledged that James had given his shoes to a fan behind the Lakers bench so there wasn’t a chance for confusion or a mixup here. They were just upset the team they cover were losing big. Nobody expects broadcasters to have no bias these days, but to claim this is disrespectful of the Jazz is just silly.
These are professional athletes that are paid millions of dollars to entertain fans. As seriously as we want to take all of this, at the end of the day it’s for fun. If James having fun on the sideline, giving his shoes away to fans, and generally keeping people entertained is disrespectful then we’ve lost sign of what the point of sports is. Fun. All of this is fun and no one is being hurt. Let’s just enjoy moments like this.
