LeBron James rips The Athletic over 'negative' reports

The Los Angeles Lakers are going through one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history. Besides LeBron James’ great play, there have been absolutely no reasons to even tune in and watch them.

Things are getting quite ugly a Crypto.com Arena. A fan got arrested for heckling the players, Russell Westbrook, Trevor Ariza, and even LeBron got back-and-forth with the fans, and the team was booed after another humiliating loss against a subpar season.

Needless to say, it’s not like there have been many— or any— good things to say, think, or write about the 2021-22 Lakers. Then again, LeBron thinks the narratives around him and the team are just biased. At least when they come from Bill Oram of The Athletic.

LeBron James Calls Out Bill Oram, Says He Hates The Lakers

“It’s weird that you guys — well not you guys, whoever started this whole thing… Bill doesn’t like the Lakers, anyway. It’s always going to be a negative,” James told the media. “Anytime Bill says anything about the Lakers it’s going to be negative. So, I hope no one in the Lakers faithful listens to Bill Oram. I hope not. He hasn’t said one great thing about the Lakers in so long.”

Oram Responds To LeBron’s Comments

Oram didn’t hesitate to clear the air on what and how he wrote what he wrote about James’ passive-aggressive comments and potential Lakers exit. Rather than shy away from the confrontation, he embraced it:

“LeBron is asking us to ignore 19 years of passive-aggressive maneuvers and subtweets and to take his comments about possibly returning to play in Cleveland and his glowing endorsements of Sam Presti, Koby Altman and Les “F*ck Them Picks” Snead at face value,” Oram wrote. “No subtext. No implications. No pressure being applied on the Lakers. Nothing to see here, folks.”

James Backpedals, Says He Talked To Oram

Unsurprisingly, Oram faced plenty of backlash from Lakers Nation on social media, which is why LeBron himself came to his defense by stating that they had already talked and worked things out:

“@billoram and I had a candid conversation after the game tonight and I know he has a job to do. I know what he wrote wasn’t truthful cause it never came from me,” James tweeted. “But I get it, SOURCES run this game. Nevertheless #LakerNation let him be cause he ain’t a bad guy.”

At the end of the day, the Lakers are a disaster on and off the court and that has nothing to do with what people write about them. So, maybe, they should focus their efforts on the X’s and O’s and not so much on the editorials.