The Los Angeles Lakers fell to their in-arena rivals on Christmas Day, blowing a fourth quarter lead and suffering their second loss of the year to the Clippers, 111-106. A few days after the game, a little bit of drama hit Laker Land involving LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma’s personal trainer, Clint Parks.
While James had a solid game on Christmas — 23 points on 9-for-24 shooting, 10 assists, nine rebounds, two steals — Parks thought he was “dodging smoke” from Kawhi Leonard, who had 35 points and 12 boards in the win. Parks made a pair of posts on his Instagram Story that called out James and praised Leonard for their head-to-head matchup.
https://twitter.com/goldlakerss/status/1210626595511132161
Seeing a teammate’s trainer call out James like this is kind of jarring, and during his meeting with the media during the team’s shootaround on Saturday, he was asked about what happened. James made it a point to say that Kuzma approached him to tell him what happened during practice on Friday, before saying that this sort of thing happens when a person wants some notoriety.
LeBron James responds to speculation about Kyle Kuzma’s social media activity following the Lakers’ Christmas Day loss to the Clippers pic.twitter.com/8SLceSpOP5
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 28, 2019
“Everyone can have their own opinion, and anytime someone wants to get some notoriety, they can throw my name in and people gonna pick it up, and that’s why you’re asking me about it, because my name was in it,” James said.
James went onto say that while he does not know Kuzma’s trainer, he wishes him “the best.” The Lakers are slated to take the floor on Saturday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, and James is questionable to play with a groin injury.
