Walt "Clyde" Frazier thought LeBron James was coasting, so he got to roasting.
The New York Knicks color commentator and Basketball Hall of Famer criticized the Los Angeles Lakers star for sitting far away from his teammates' huddle during Sunday's matinee at Madison Square Garden.
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"When you're the face of the NBA, I think you should be more a part of your team, no matter what is going on," Frazier said on MSG's Knicks-Lakers broadcast. "In the public, you've gotta be a part of the team. Maybe in the locker room, you're not. You have to exude that type of togetherness in public, and right now, we see he doesn't really care."
Sunday wasn't the first time that James separated himself from his teammates on the Lakers' bench. Back in February, James sat at the end of L.A's bench in a blowout loss to the Indiana Pacers, and the 34-year-old has faced criticism since (and beforehand) for a perceived lack of leadership in failing to guide the young Lakers through a minefield of injuries and leaked Anthony Davis trade proposals.
Now, a team that was supposed to challenge the Warriors for Western Conference supremacy is in 11th place, 9.5 games back of the cross-town Clippers in eighth. You know, the same Clippers who traded away their best player ahead of the deadline (Tobias Harris), have a lottery-protected first-round draft pick, and thus might or might not be engaged in a Producers-style postseason push.
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Golden State Warriors
LeBron's first season in L.A. isn't going according to plan, in other words. He has three more -- with a player option in the third -- to turn things around, and it's possible the Lakers could end up being that threat to the Warriors down the line.
But when the teams play once more this regular season on April 4, that certainly won't be the case.