LeBron James changes course, is now against the playoff play-in tournament

LeBron James is now against fun and the NBA’s play-in playoff tournament. 

A great man once said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The great man who coined this phrase was not LeBron James, but former Heavyweight boxing champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson.

Much like the figurative opponent in that Tyson quote, James and his Los Angeles Lakers seem to no longer have a plan, after being repeatedly punched in the mouth during the long absences of both James and sidekick Anthony Davis.

The defending NBA champions currently sit in fifth place in the Western Conference, though they had fallen as far as seventh during the long layoff for James and Davis.

LeBron James has returned but has not looked like himself

More from Sir Charles In Charge

• Dillon Brooks proved his value to Houston Rockets in the 2023 FIBA World Cup
• NBA Trade Rumors: 1 Player from each team most likely to be traded in-season
• Golden State Warriors: Buy or sell Chris Paul being a day 1 starter
• Does Christian Wood make the Los Angeles Lakers a legit contender?
• NBA Power Rankings: Tiering all 30 projected starting point guards for 2023-24

James returned to the lineup over the weekend to join Davis (who returned last week) and the rest of the band in losses to the Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors. James didn’t look anywhere near 100 percent in either game and was ruled out for Monday night’s showdown with the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers did take care of business defeating the Nuggets 93-89 led by Davis’s 25 points in 33 minutes.

The “King” did catch some flack and deservedly so after discrediting the NBA’s new play-in tournament and going even further in his criticism of the new playoff system.

"[via TSN]“Whoever came up with that s— needs to be fired.”"

Like Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic and team Governor [owner] Mark Cuban just a couple of weeks ago, this sounds like sour grapes from a player and team that never expected to be in the position of potentially being a play-in team. None of these guys had an issue with the play-in two months or even one month ago. Now that the season is beginning to wind down, everyone has a gripe since their season could be ended in one or two games given an unfavorable matchup during the play-in.

This sudden rebellion against the play-in tournament is just more sour grapes and, woe is me attitude from one of the biggest NBA superstars in the league’s history.

Thanks to Monday’s victory, the Lakers have climbed back into the fifth spot out West, with the Mavericks sitting less than firmly behind them in sixth place, just a half-game ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers. The play-in seeding begins at number seven. With just a couple of weeks remaining in the season, both the Lakers and Mavs could still end up being play-in teams.

These last seven or eight games that remain should be interesting, especially for the teams hovering around 7-10.