NBA MVP Favorite Appears to Shade LeBron James After Lakers’ Series Loss to Nuggets

The Los Angeles Lakers saw their season come to a much earlier end than anyone around the organization would have hoped. For the second straight season, Los Angeles fell at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, this time in the first round of the postseason. Following the loss, Los Angeles has now fired their head coach, Darvin Ham, and are entering the offseason with more questions than answers.

This includes the fate of superstar forward LeBron James. James can opt out of his current contract with the Lakers to become a free agent this summer. But before any of that happens, James seemed to be on the receiving end of some shade being thrown at him by a fellow All-Star player.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder liked a post on Instagram that showed the difference between the attitude of James following a playoff loss and the late Kobe Bryant.

Within the video, it shows Bryant talking about how he hates losing, with a clip from James after Game 5 talking about how injuries messed with the Lakers’ season. The original post was meant to show how the mindset of Bryant and James is different, with Gilgeous-Alexander fueling the fire behind this narrative.

This isn’t the first time that Gilgeous-Alexander has gone at James either. He previously said that he isn’t a fan of James’s game and that he didn’t ever relate to him.

“His game, I never really liked his game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “To me, when I was younger, he was just super athletic, I wasn’t that. He was 6-foot-8 and super strong, and I wasn’t that either. So I never like, related… Just kill you with skill. It is fun beating Bron.”

Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder have gotten better over the last few years and their matchups with the Lakers have gotten chippier. Los Angeles won the head-to-head battle this year, winning three of the four matchups. But Oklahoma City did spoil the night that James became the NBA‘s all-time scoring leader.

While there hasn’t been any massive, iconic moment between James and Gilgeous-Alexander on the court, James likely took notice of this. He will never mention it publicly, but it will be used as motivation for the next time these players match up against one another, wherever James is playing. For now, the Lakers are at home and Oklahoma City is looking to continue its strong season in the playoffs — but this shade thrown at James won’t be forgotten.