LeBron James ‘Turned Off’ Owners and Players in Meeting: Report

LeBron James was acting like “The King” during a crucial call with owners and players, turning many of them off, according to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

Smith said on Friday’s First Take that sources told him that James was acting like he was above the rest of the NBA during the call deciding the future of the NBA season, which included a 15-minute monologue after decisions had already been made.

“He was speaking out of pocket and was talking to players in a fashion that really turned some of these young cats off,” Smith said. “He came across as if he was the King with some crown.”

Smith said that the younger generation of players were not having it from James because of the fashion in which he spoke to them in the bubble meeting prior to the call with owners. James reportedly stormed out of the room.

“He came off like ‘I got mine, I don’t need none of this,'” Smith said.

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Report: LeBron James Let Emotions Get Best of Him in Meeting

The Milwaukee Bucks sparked the movement to boycott the games after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, demanding change. The Bucks — the top seed in the Eastern Conference — decided not to come out of the locker room for their Game 5 matchup against the Orlando Magic. The other teams on the schedule soon began to make the same decision, including the Lakers.

It came out that James’ Lakers and the Clippers were the only teams to vote not to restart the NBA season in a bubble meeting that polled all the teams. James, who was reportedly the driving force behind the Lakers “no vote,” changed his tune the day after.

“LeBron’s emotions got the best of him [Wednesday] and today he calmed down,” a source familiar with the meetings told The Los Angeles Times. “He talked to a lot of different people. Yeah, he changed his mind about playing, but he was always for what everyone else wanted to do, whatever the majority was. It wasn’t until what Milwaukee had going on that kind of sent him over.”

James has been a force for change in many ways off the basketball court. Most notably, he helped create “More Than a Vote,” a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting Black voters, and opened the “I Promise School,” a public school in his native Akron, Ohio, for at-risk students. James issued a statement on Thursday via Twitter.

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NBA Announces Return to Play Plan

The NBA and its players came to an agreement to come back and finish the playoffs, ultimately realizing that the platform the games provide will only amplify their message for real change to take place. The game will restart on Thursday.

“These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said in the statement. “We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together — in Orlando and in all NBA team markets — to push for meaningful and sustainable change.”

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