Stephen A. HATES LeBron James DOWNPLAYING the REMATCH vs. the Denver Nuggets 😡 | First Take

do you like love or hate LeBron

downplaying the rematch versus de well I

hate it that's my personal opinion I'm

not blaming him for it he can't be

worried about what the public thinks

what I think what anybody thinks he's

trying to win the championship and I

respect that but this is what LeBron

James does you know he wants you to rely

strictly on the game right but on far

too many occasions when the theater of

competition takes fold he doesn't want

to be a participant in that meaning that

you somebody you talking him you coming

at him and what have you he doesn't feed

into that one of the reasons we loved

when when Lance Stevenson blew in his

air legs and Wendy is because we knew

that obviously he was the superior

player he was playing on the superior

team the Indiana Pacers were trying to

antagonize him and we knew that LeBron

James was going to respond to it we

could just tell and we were good with

that in this particular instance it's a

different animal you ain't the giant

okay you supposed to be the Giant Slayer

the Giant are the Denver Nuggets the

reigning defending NBA champions who by

the way swept you last year four

straight in the Western Conference

Finals who by the way have beaten you

eight straight and oh by the way the

last three times y'all played against

one another in this this season okay

opening night it was their ring ceremony

so they watched it they let you watch

them get their rings then they went out

there and took you out the second go

round they took you out when Kobe's

statue was unveiled and the third time

they took you out was when LeBron James

Dropped 40,000 points for his career

okay those are the three nights that

that that the Lakers obviously were

looking forward to celebrating and it

was ruined by the Denver Nuggets so you

would think that when you've got that

going up against you you raise up and

you're like yeah we I need to take this

personal nothing else has worked being

calm hasn't worked being even kill

hasn't worked just preparing myself as I

always do hasn't worked something or the

normal procedures that works against

everybody else hasn't worked for me

against this particular Squad the Denver

Nuggets and still we hear what LeBron

James says so again I understand it you

understand he's the player not me and he

can't be worried about what other people

thinking but if you're a spectator it

does raise the ante a bit if you

listening LeBron James like they don't

whip our ass about they straight times

I'm sick of these dudes I I I I want

this I want this bad and I hope that

we're ready it would have been nice to

hear the quote unquote King Embrace that

kind of competition like kings are

supposed to do well look Stephen A

everybody knows I'm far from any sort of

LeBron apologist or anything like that

in fact people that love LeBron think

it's the other way I pride myself and

not having an agenda just come out give

my honest opinion here's the thing when

I first heard it and then read it again

cuz I want to make sure I got it all

because sometimes I look for little

subtle things and something somebody

might say I thought you know what this

this isn't that bad this is nothing

inflammatory where I'm going to go in on

him to think he was coming off soft or

weak in this matchup and I wanted to

hear more about it I really didn't think

there was much to it and here's why

bottom line is they didn't know they

were gonna get Denver so it's easy to

sit there and say hey man they swept us

last year this is the team we should be

thinking about them all year the bottom

line is the Lakers were trying to

survive they were just trying to get in

to play in surviv the play in we didn't

know they were going to get Denver till

right the last couple days of the season

now the matchup is here okay now you

know you're going to get the Nuggets so

could he have said something Stephen A

along the lines of what you're

intimating yeah it probably would have

been better to hear words like confident

we're confident this time around refer

to what's happened here in recent

history nothing wrong with referring to

getting swept last year hey man they

swept us last year like we we remember

that we're confident this time around

say things like we know you got to go

through this team to come out of the

Western Conference they are on top of

the mountain right now so we're going to

get them now let's get them now like

things like that I think is what you're

saying I completely agree that kind of

gives an air of we know we're going into

this against a top team you give them

their due respect but at the same time

you portray an air of confidence that

you think things are going to be

different this time around I think

that's what you're saying and I would

agree with you on that and let me ask

you guys both something do you think

part of the reason that LeBron like

can't go more in is because man the

nuggets are a bunch of good dudes they

don't have a Lance Stevenson they don't

have a dude that's poking LeBron James

and and and talking to him they don't

have a Dylan Brooks they don't have a

guy like that it's just a bunch of good

dudes including their best player

they're just quiet they're not arrogant

they show up and do their business and

almost feel like something like that

injected into this might give the Lakers

a little bit more of an edge a little

bit more of that of what you're talking

about Stephen that would come out of

LeBron's mouth legs uh uh uh I don't

find Jamal Murray to be

quiet I mean that brother talk now I

mean I mean he go out and back it up but

when he giving it to you he giving it to

you and he lets you know he's giving it

to you I've seen him do that to the

Lakers am I right

Wendy yeah and Aaron Gordon does it uh

and Michael Mone is not afraid to talk

trash I would have found it more

entertaining for for LeBron to do a

little WWE Action here and you know

really gotten into it and said you know

sort of embrac being the underdog and

you know talked about how oh they're

they expect to beat us well they got to

come do it and everything but the thing

about it is he's not comfortable being

an underdog it's not something he's done

very often in his career and he really

doesn't like it when a team has his

number I mean he's changed teams in the

past a couple of times when he's felt

another team has his number when the

Celtics had his number he went to Miami

when the Warriors had his number he went

to LA the nuggets have had the Lakers

number what's his move he doesn't really

have a move and that's why I think he's

playing it a little bit Meek look he's

15- one in his career in first round

playoff series I'm gonna say that again

he's 15 and one when he's made it into

the first round of the playoffs he has

owned that round he he is not used to

having the idea of being Underdog even

last year when they went into that

series with Memphis they had a lot of

confidence in that series you could see

by the way they approached it that is

clearly not the case here you can tell

by those comments LeBron does not want

to build it up Stephen A you came on

this show yesterday and built this up as

a possible Legacy defining opportunity

for LeBron pull this upset and it's a

feather in that cap what's on the line

for KD versus Minnesota

well I think that you know if we going

to talk about listen LeBron's Legacy is

paint is is is etched in stone for

championships for League MV MVPs and and

in this 21st season approaching 40 years

of age look at how he's looked on the

basketball court Kevin Durant's a few

years younger averaged over 27 a game

has looked spectacular this year but

Kevin Durant has a different story guys

um he hasn't been out of the second

round since departing from Steph Curry

and the Golden State Warriors that's an

entirely different animal oh that's an

entirely different narrative that we

have to be talking about here someone

that great that has had Kyrie Irving and

James Harden as his teammates that now

has Devin Booker and Bradley beill as

his teammates that once had Russell

Westbrook and others as his teammates I

mean since you departed from Steph Curry

and Golden State after claiming that you

wanted to go there to begin with because

you just wanted to play the right way

you just want to hoop that's all you

cared about well you in a pristine

situation where you'd still be winning

championships if you had stayed there

but you passed that up it's been a long

long time since Kevin Durant has been in

the Conference Finals and I'm telling

you right now you can't be in this

situation and go out there and lose in

the first round if that happens that is

not good there's no question about it

and we talk it's not an accident that as

great as he is as marvelous of a player

as he is we don't talk about him nearly

as much as we should and we damn sure

don't talk about him nearly as much as

we used to because the results haven't

been there and the thing about it that's

really really alarming is that you get

the impression no matter how LeBron

tries to downplay stuff that LeBron

wants to be talked about LeBron wants to

be to the center of attention he wants

to be that dude that is the Marquee and

whereas when you look at Kevin Durant

and Phoenix you know I don't know this

to be true but it definitely looks a

certain way it almost looks like the

less we talk about him the happier he is

he just wants to fly under the radar and

hoop but in the end guess what you know

what this the sure five best way for us

not to talk about you if your ass is at

home when it really really counts

because somebody bounced you out of

there and that has been the case for him

since he's departed from Golden State I

don't blame him for the series against m

when Kyrie got hurt because I thought

they could have won it all then and

Kevin Durant was absolutely Sensational

but other than that it it's it's been

it's it's been rough there's no way

around

it Stephen you and I have been here

before this is one of those triggering

conversations where you and I are just

never going to see eye to eye okay

because I don't think Kevin Durant needs

anything else in his career does he want

it do we want it yeah absolutely he

doesn't go to Brooklyn unless he wanted

it but he's a two-time Finals MVP and I

absolutely and here i' said this before

and here we go I absolutely reject the

premise on its face that the Warriors

win especially the 17 title without him

the idea that he wasn't a driver in that

is just absolutely patently unfair to

him who said that the MVP of the finals

many people said that not you I agree

not

you other colleagues in our in our

industry have have downplayed that final

I know he's the best stand for it yeah

okay all right

also his his performance in the 2021

Olympics I know it's not the NBA he won

us a gold medal ask Greg papovich asked

Devin Booker ask the other guys there he

won us a gold medal and in between

getting to those finals and now he Tes

Achilles tendon he is the the biggest

success story coming off in Achilles

tendon in history now now I still to

this day don't understand why he chose

with the with the menu of options that

he had I don't understand why he chose

to go to Brooklyn with with Kyrie I

thought it was a mistake the day he did

it it ended up being a mistake and I

would love to know how he really feels

sitting there in Phoenix this year where

they've had a disappointing Season

watching Kyrie over in Dallas play every

game be on his best behavior be an

absolutely Picture Perfect cohort and

teammate to Luca donic and that team f

flying high I wonder what he thinks

about Kyrie playing that way in Dallas

when that's what he could have been in

Brooklyn but that's all off the table at

right now I don't think Durant needs

anything in his career I think he

doesn't play another game by the way

he's going to play for Team USA again

this year and try to win a fourth gold

medal he is already the greatest Team

USA performer in our history and I think

that should count on his resume because

it's hard to win those Olympics we don't

give him credit for how hard how hard it

is and how great he was in that that's

to me two finals MVPs regular season MVP

three-time gold medalist in the Olympics

where if there was an MVP of the

Olympics he would have won it and so I

think that's relevant I also think that

the suns are out of position they are

not as good as they needed to be they

they they've made some decisions and

they've and this Trio hasn't played well

together and I'm not sure that they're

going to be able to win one series much

less three but I'm not going to blame it

all in Kevin

Durant all right well listen I I

disagree with you Wendy I I lean with on

this I lean and here's why many people

do well here's why it's very rare when a

player gets into you know mid-30s and

you know most of their career is behind

them and they're this great of a player

usually by this time a guy if you they

they've clearly had the the production

right they've had all of the individual

accolades you can have and they've also

won which Duran has done by the time you

get to this point you almost feel like

okay there's there's nothing that

anybody can do where to bring this guy

down a notch he can only grab additional

real estate in terms of how we view them

historically and when you talk about

historically Legacy I'm talking about

like 15 20 years down the road when we

look at Kevin Durant's career very

rarely is a guy in that spot like take

LeBron for instance there's nothing that

can happen to LeBron James gonna drag

him down nothing to Steph Curry that

happens the rest of his career is going

to reduce the way we view him 15 20

years from now looking back on his

career I think KD is that rare guy that

actually they lose to the Minnesota

Timberwolves when he's got that kind of

talent around him those two guys and

what that represents offensively and

what you should be capable of doing and

you lose to a team with no Collective

winning experience in the playoffs in

Minnesota I know they're the three seed

they got Anthony Edwards that team

hasn't won anything in the postseason

and you get them in the first round and

you get knocked out I actually do think

it's the kind of thing not not a lot but

I do think it's something that

detractors can use against Kevin Durant

he

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