When players get to a certain age or at a certain level as a veteran in the NBA, they stop caring about the little things during the NBA preseason, and sometimes it’s hard to blame them with an 82-game regular-season schedule in front of them.
However, some things can be avoidable, and that’s the case that Los Angeles Lakers legend Michael Cooper recently made about superstar LeBron James casually eating food on the team’s bench after playing in the first half of the game and changing in the locker room at halftime.
Cooper believes that James snacking away on the bench in street clothes instead of the locker room is disrespectful to the team, as it shows he doesn’t care about what’s going on with his team, via NBACentral.
Michael Cooper tells LeBron James to ‘respect the game’
“You’ve got to have respect for the game, man… He’s over there – I don’t mind the guy eating, but go eat in the locker room, and then when you come out, you come out and be part of the team, not just sit on the end of the… pic.twitter.com/wnTY7pO5rD
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 18, 2023
These days, anytime an older player from a different generation criticizes someone of James’ stature who is still playing the game, they are almost always met with criticism because some fans don’t see the harm.
However, the same fans don’t realize what James’ actions do to other players around the league and his teammates, as it makes it cool to do whatever he wants to, even though it’s frowned upon.
Cooper is right in the sense that he could’ve eaten that in the locker room, but instead, knowing he’d cause a fuss and become a distraction, he went and did it anyway.
The fact of the matter is just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.
He had already walked into the arena while injured, drinking wine without a care in the world a few years ago.
Imagine if a rookie did what he did.
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