LeBron James wanted to put the young guard in his place.
In lieu of all the drama that transpired in the Lakers beatdown by the Phoenix Suns last night at Staples Center, a fan captured an exchange between LeBron James and opponent Cameron Payne during the game.
“Stay humble man, stay humble. Cmon now, you can use that humble. You was at home a year and half ago and now you wanna pop off? Don’t do that, why you wanna pop off?”
James was alluding to how Cameron Payne was out of the league less than two years ago, before his career had a resurrection last season as a backup guard for Chris Paul. Now, Payne has found his role on this contending Suns team and is pretty comfortable in mouthing off to his opponents.
This is common trash talk in the NBA. Payne would not have been talking trash, nor James would have said what he did, had the score been flipped and the Lakers were winning in a landslide.
Even though it’s only been two games, not only Laker fans, but some of the Lakers players seem to be agitated with the early season struggles. Just look at the widely seen bench scuffle between Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard earlier in the same game.
