Former NBA guard Rashad McCants recently took a shot at Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, claiming that he hasn’t gotten the job done as the No. 1 option during his tenure with the franchise.
James won a title with the Lakers in the 2019-20 season, but McCants downplayed that when challenged on the subject. James, as Lakers fans certainly recall, took home Finals MVP honors as part of that championship run.
“The coronavirus was the No. 1 option then,” McCants said of the Lakers’ 2020 title.
While the 2019-20 NBA season was unlike any other, the Lakers still entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, and James was one of the best players in the NBA during that campaign.
He was an All-NBA selection and finished second in the league’s MVP voting, averaging 25.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and an NBA-high 10.2 assists per game. In the postseason, he averaged 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game en route to his fourth ring.
McCants clearly wants to discredit the Lakers’ title in the 2019-20 season, but every team in the league’s Orlando, Fla. bubble faced essentially the same circumstances in the playoffs. Not only that, but the Lakers were one of the best teams in the league prior to the season being paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
James and Anthony Davis both came up big for the Lakers during the playoffs in the 2019-20 season, and Los Angeles dominated just about every team it faced. It only lost one game to the Portland Trail Blazers, one game to the Houston Rockets and one game to the Denver Nuggets before beating Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in six games in the Finals.
This season, the Lakers came up short in the playoffs, but it wasn’t James’ fault. Injuries to Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic impacted the Lakers throughout the playoffs, though Reaves did return for the final six games of the postseason.
James was still terrific, averaging 23.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game in the playoffs. The 41-year-old led the Lakers past the Houston Rockets in the first round before they were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.
No matter how McCants feels about the Lakers’ 2020 title, fans know that James’ play was the driving force behind breaking Los Angeles’ title drought.
