Just because LeBron James has been nursing a left groin injury for the past couple weeks does not mean he is totally out of the spotlight. Last night, he took to his personal Twitter account to address a gripe he had with a late-game foul call against teammate Lonzo Ball.
In the final seconds of Thursday night's contest against the Thunder, a pivotal shooting foul was called on Ball during a three-point shot attempt by Russell Westbrook. The former MVP would hit all three of his free throws to tie the game at 122 and send it to overtime. A closer look at the play shows that Westbrook might not have been in the shooting motion when he was fouled by the second-year guard.
King James also seemed to agree that the play should not have been ruled a shooting foul and voiced his thoughts on social media with some subtle shade. He even tagged the official NBA referees account to make sure they saw his complaint.
After the game, referee Tom Washington admitted that the wrong call was made during regulation because Westbrook was not fouled in the act of shooting. "Upon being able to see the review of the play, we realized that the illegal contact actually happened prior to [Westbrook's] upward motion, so it should have been a side-out," Washington said.
Despite the blunder, the Lakers were able to hold on in overtime and secure a 138-128 victory. The win is a much needed one, too. The Lakers are 5-8 during the 13-game span James has been out with injury. That record includes losses to lesser teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks.
There is still no exact date to expect King James' return to the floor, but for the sake of the purple and gold, who is barely clinging to the eighth seed in the Western Conference right now, hopefully it is sooner than later.
