Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James may have the reputation of being a nice guy, but this does not mean that The King has not been involved in his fair share of spats throughout his career. One such incident was during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers when LeBron supposedly got into a fight with then Cavs teammate Tristan Thompson.
Former Cavs guard Dahntay Jones spilled the beans on that incident during a recent appearance on The No Chill with Gilbert Arenas Podcast. According to Jones, it was he who convinced LeBron to apologize to Thompson after the pair got into a heated argument:
“Him (James) and Tristan got into it one time,” Jones said (h/t Brad Sullivan of Cavaliers Nation). “And he was like, ‘But Tristan ain’t —.’ I was like, ‘But bro, you wrong. Tristan was there. He’ll run through a wall for you. You gotta, you need to apologize.’ Goes and apologize. If you hold him accountable, he’ll listen. If you give him information, he’s taking everything to just be better on a daily basis. That’s where the respect came in because he’s a hell of a teammate. He’s always prepared. He gives everything he has to winning and being dominant. It’s like, okay, it’s not by accident that he’s considered one of the greatest of all time.”
First off, I would love to see any footage of Tristan Thompson getting in LeBron’s face. Thompson is not the type to back down and I’m sure he would have challenged his former Cavs teammate — especially since Jones is saying that it was James that was in the wrong.
More importantly, however, it would have been great to witness LeBron’s apology. It takes a big man to accept his mistake and an even bigger one to apologize when he knows he was wrong. As Jones said, this is just one of the things that makes the former Cavs superstar one of the GOATs.
