“Going for a scoring title without making the playoffs is the most wackest thing”: LeBron James sounds off on chasing stats over winning after disappointing Lakers season

LeBron James

LeBron James and the Lakers had a horrific season, being eliminated from the playoffs before the regular season could even end despite LeBron’s heroics.

In his 19th season, LeBron had a career year, nearly leading the league in scoring and carrying the Lakers squad on a nightly basis. However, it wasn’t enough.

Russell Westbrook was a bad fit in the team, and Anthony Davis was injured for more than half the season. Towards the end, the Lakers simply didn’t have enough to pull through, and they fell to the 11th seed.

There are going to be major changes to this team this offseason, and in fact, they’ve already started. Head coach Frank Vogel was fired, and there are definitely going to be big questions about the future of several players on this team including Russell Westbrook, of course, and possibly even Anthony Davis.

LeBron’s crazy season, in essence, amounted to nothing, and that’s what he’s most bothered by.

Also Read: “Lakers get Klay Thompson and James Wiseman, Warriors get Anthony Davis”: Colin Cowherd suggests a wild, league-altering trade between Western Conference teams

LeBron James doesn’t want to chase empty stats

For the longest team during the season, LeBron was the NBA’s leading scorer. The fact that he was doing that despite being 37 years old shows just how dominant of a season he was having.

There was a stretch of two games in about 4-5 days where he dropped 50+ points becoming the oldest player in NBA history to score that much.

However, during the stretch run of the season, LeBron suffered an ankle injury which kept him out of games, and MVP candidate Joel Embiid was able to catch up to LeBron and eventually surpass him for the scoring title.

Joel Embiid finished the season averaging 30.6 points per game while LeBron averaged 30.3 points per game. While it would have been crazy if LeBron did finish as the scoring leader this season, to him, it doesn’t matter if the Lakers weren’t going to qualify for the playoffs.

Of course, LeBron’s thoughts make sense. At this point in his career, he isn’t chasing stats, he wants rings. Going for the individual accolades over team performance means nothing. Of course, there is a lot of blame to go around about this Lakers season, and a lot of can be traced to LeBron (despite the season he had), but regardless the King knows what’s important. Big changes are comng to this Lakers team, and it’ll be interesting to follow their arc to next season.

Also Read: “I wouldn’t let LeBron James do sh*t!”: Stephen A Smith emphatically claims he could have led Lakers to a FAR less miserable season

Post Edited By: Ashish Priyadarshi
Basketball LeBron James Los Angeles Lakers NBA

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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