Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James uploaded a screenshot of a social media post on X from the agent of Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant and echoed the message.
The post implies that Durant’s agent Rich Kleiman is fed up with the negative takes that are prevalent in national sports media. Additionally, Kleiman credited James and J.J. Redick’s former podcast as an example of how sports should be covered moving forward.
Just minutes after he approved of Kleiman’s post, James announced that he plans to take a break from social media.
Redick and James were co-hosts of a podcast called Mind the Game for several months. The last video uploaded to the podcast’s YouTube channel came in June of 2024, and the two spent that episode talking about the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.
But James and Redick’s partnership in podcasting came to a halt when the latter was announced as the newest head coach of the Lakers. Redick was hired to replace Darvin Ham, who led the Lakers from the sidelines for two seasons and is now the top assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks under Doc Rivers.
The early returns on Redick have been very encouraging, as the Lakers have looked like one of the better teams in the Western Conference so far in the 2024-25 regular season.
The team’s current six-game winning streak is tied with the Orlando Magic for the longest active one in the NBA at this moment, and at 10-4, Los Angeles owns the third-best record of any team in the West.
Also, Anthony Davis has seemingly taken his game to another level in Redick’s inaugural season as the Lakers’ head coach. He’s averaging a career-high 30.7 points per game while shooting 56.7 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from deep so far in his sixth season playing for Los Angeles.
With James taking a break from social media, he may be looking to get away from negativity, or he may be looking to eliminate distractions as the Lakers work to maximize their potential this season.
Maybe folks around the country who work in sports media will see James’ posts on X and be inspired to limit their negative takes regarding teams and athletes.