Playing with LeBron James seems like it can be really, really hard. While he gets praised as a teammate and is one of the best leaders the NBA has on and off the court, he is demanding of those around him as he tries to win another championship. Plus, as we learned from Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, suiting up with James means you are at risk of a broken nose.
Pelinka joined Jeanie Buss and Luke Walton for a radio appearance in Los Angeles on Friday night and touched on a number of subjects surrounding the Lakers. One of them was a recent team practice in which James tried setting up a teammate, who wasn’t expecting the ball to come to him and dropped it.
It was at this point where James made it clear that, if you are his teammate, you need to be aware that this can happen, or else you’re going to get hurt.
https://twitter.com/hmfaigen/status/1038234120202084352
Of course, this led to a major question: Which Laker made this mistake and learned that playing with James could lead to a broken nose? Apparently, the most popular guess was third-year big man Ivica Zubac, who caught wind of this and made it clear that it wasn’t him.
Definitely not since I’m with my national team and unfortunately LeBron is not Croatian 🤷🏻♂️
— Ivica Zubac (@ivicazubac) September 8, 2018
We may never know which teammate had this exchange with James, but our best clue will come during the regular season, when one Laker spend their time on the floor with both of their hands guarding their face.
