Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James could get in trouble with the league due to his behavior during their showdown with the Boston Celtics on Saturday.
James faced a ton of backlash during the game, with fans accusing him of flopping. The incident in question happened in the fourth quarter while the Lakers forward was guarding Celtics star Jayson Tatum.
As Tatum tried to move past James, he appeared to elbow the 40-year-old NBA veteran in the chin area. It didn’t seem to be a hard hit, but James tried to sell the foul by flailing his head back as if he was hurt.
The problem, however, was that James was slow to react, making his move look exaggerated.
The NBA has a strict anti-flopping rule, which could subject LeBron James’ actions to a league review. The NBA describes a flop as “an attempt to either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call by exaggerating the effect of contact with an opposing player.”
It is important to note that the NBA has hit a couple of players with a postgame fine for flopping in-game in recent weeks. During the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Feb. 23 game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Donovan Mitchell was able to sell a foul on rookie Jaylen Wells by flopping and was eventually hit with a $2,000 fine because of it.
On the same game day, New York Knicks guard Josh Hart was assessed to have flopped against the Boston Celtics and was alsofined $2,000 as a result.
Aside from a potential punishment, though, James has other concerns. He suffered a groin injury midway through the final quarter against the Celtics and is reportedly in danger of missing “weeks.”
