The Lakers star didn’t hold back from calling out the media.
On Friday night, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James went off on the media for their criticism of Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid before he went down with a knee injury.
Said the Lakers star on social media, “Where are all the media outlets, TV media personalities, hot takes that talked so much about Joel Embiid about missing those games when he knew what he was dealing with. Now he’s out with an injury because of it. Not 1 person has went back on TV or their dumba** podcast and apologized to that MAN!! No accountability.”
On Monday night, after the Lakers topped the Hornets, James doubled down on his criticism:
“I sent my tweet out in regards to the whole situation and that’s how I felt about it… I meant it.” LeBron James on his tweet criticizing media outlets and personalities for how they talked about Joel Embiid’s injury situation.
After missing several games with a sore knee, Embiid suffered a meniscus tear last week in the game against the Golden State Warriors.
“I’m told that the hope is that [Joel] Embiid misses one to two months,” Shams Charania reported Monday morning on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back. “If a full repair is needed in surgery [on his knee], that’s going to be a significantly longer recovery time period.”
If it’s true that Embiid came back and attempted to play because of media pressure, then the Lakers star is right that he is owed an apology. Embiid hasn’t given any indication that this is the case. It was also reported that Embiid would not play through injury just to meet the 65-game minimum needed to win MVP. That news broke less than an hour before Embiid suffered the torn meniscus.
But LeBron may still have a point that those who criticize in the media are often unwilling to come back and say “I was wrong.”