Being a basketball fan you must have heard several Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant stories where the opponents, in all their senses, would dare to trash-talk and live to regret for the rest of their careers. There are not many LeBron James stories like that.
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Both MJ and his legendary successor with his “Mamba Mentality”, had that wild competitiveness in them that knew no boundaries whatsoever.
LeBron might be close or even better at some things than that duo, but nobody considers him to be somebody who could be instigated like Jordan and Kobe and react to that instigation the way they did.
But this Kevin Love Story of a 36-year-old Bron playing a game against his former team might make you change your mind.
When LeBron James took it personally and sank the Cavaliers alone
It was a regular season game of the 2020-21 season, the reigning champions visited The Land and were trailing the game 87-89 in the third quarter.
An executive from the Cavaliers bench clapping on his missed fade-away shot was all LeBron needed to outscore the whole team by himself from that point on
Kevin Love straight away knew what was coming as he got a warning from Cavs’ athletic coach Stephen Spiro. He revealed the story himself to the former Cavs teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye on their Road Trippin podcast recently.
A mistake made by an executive unleashed James and cost the Cavaliers the game
The King went berserk after the executive, who was later revealed to be Jason Hillman, had a reaction that irked him while his Lakers were losing the game.
In the aftermath, he outscored the whole Cavaliers team by himself in the fourth quarter and posted up 21 points in the fourth quarter alone like Love was told he will.
Meanwhile, the Lakers allowed Cavs just 19 points on the opposite end and took the game away 115-108 behind James’ brilliance.
The man scored 46 points in the night, with just 26 field goal attempts. Not just that, he gathered 8 boards, and made 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks in one of his most dominant performances, probably the best against his hometown team.