LeBron James Says Missed Travel ‘One of the Worst Things I've Ever Done’

In Thursday’s Hot Clicks: LeBron goes for a walk, the hidden meaning behind the Rangers’ outfield dimensions and more.

Author:
Dan Gartland
Publish date:
Dec 5, 2019

Rules don’t apply when you’re the GOAT

Lakers' LeBron James dribbles the ball upcourt vs. Jazz — Russell Isabella/USA Today Sports

LeBron James is going through a transition in his career. The Lakers’ series of big offseason moves didn’t include acquiring a starting-caliber point guard (sorry, Rajon Rondo) so LeBron said, screw it, I’ll do it myself.

It’s been going very well thus far. He leads the league with 10.8 assists per game, way more than the guy in second, Luka Doncic with 9.2.

But bringing the ball up the court must not be 100% natural for LeBron yet, given this play from the first half of last night’s Lakers-Jazz game.

Not only did he take three steps, he also picked up his dribble before putting it back on the floor, so he also could have been called for a carry or a double dribble. The Jazz’s Bojan Bogdanovic saw it. Everyone in the crowd saw it. But the refs didn’t see it, and LeBron got away with it.

In fact, LeBron didn’t even realize what he had done. A baseline microphone caught him telling a ref in the second half that he only learned of the play during halftime.

After the game, LeBron explained that his brain just stopped working for a second. (He talks about the play at the 5:19 mark of this video.)

“It was the worst thing, probably one of the worst things I’ve ever done in my career,” LeBron said. “I didn’t realize I did it until halftime, to be honest. One of my coaches showed me. I think at the same time, I was watching the underneath play and [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] and Donovan [Mitchell] got into it. KCP started to run and then Donovan bumped into him, he fell on the ground. I think I was ready to pass the ball and my brain just of kind of—I just had a malfunction. I really had a malfunction. I felt bad for the refs on that one because they probably get a write-up on that one. That was pretty bad.”

He’s maybe being a little overdramatic by calling it “one of the worst things” he’s ever done. If there’s anybody who should be so upset it’s the refs who missed the call.

The Rangers’ new outfield wall tells a story

The Rangers’ new ballpark is set to open this spring and the team is unveiling a few details about it this week, including how the dimensions of the outfield are related to the franchise’s history.

The leftfield foul pole is 329 feet away for No. 29 Adrian Beltre
The leftfield corner is 334 feet deep for No. 34 Nolan Ryan
The wall in the left-center gap is 372 feet from the plate, in honor of the franchise’s first year in Texas (1972)
The deepest part of the park is 410 feet for No. 10 Michael Young
Dead center is 407 feet for No. 7 Ivan Rodriguez
The wall in the right-center gap is 374 feet away, in honor of the 1974 Texas team that won 27 more games than the previous year
The foul pole in right is 326 feet from home in honor of former manager Johnny Oates, whose No. 26 is retired by the team.
Home plate is 42 from the backstop in honor of Jackie Robinson