Coming into this season, many were doubting LeBron James as he was coming off perhaps the most disappointing season of his career.
Although he put up his usual eye-popping stats, he missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade and missed over a month of the regular season with the first major injury of his career.
Now, his Los Angeles Lakers have the league’s best record at 7-1 and James had a message for his critics after their 95-80 win over the Miami Heat.
LeBron om the motivation he gets when people say he’s washed: “meet me at the cleaners.” pic.twitter.com/4odPq7lw0e
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) November 9, 2019
James talked about how although he “doesn’t really believe in pressure much,” he’s been personally putting pressure on himself to perform well.
He was then asked how much of that came from people thinking he was “washed,” and he responded in kind.
“I don’t know man, meet me at the cleaners,” James said.
By his standards, James had a quiet game with 25 points and six assists, but his play so far this season has been anything but.
He’s averaging 26.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 10.5 assists a game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field through eight games.
Prior to Friday’s game, James was coming off a three-game road trip in which he posted a triple-double in each contest. The Lakers won all three games, and suddenly it looks like James is right back in the conversation as the best player in the game.
Other than his first season with the Heat, this past season was the first in which the mainstream media was widely critical of him.
It’s early, but so far this season he’s come out doing what he needs to do to make his critics eat their words.
