After going on an extended rant about the officiating in Monday’s two-point playoff loss to the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James abruptly walked out of his postgame press conference.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” James said, taking particular issue with a foul call late in the third quarter that was overturned by a Nuggets challenge.
“D-Lo (Lakers guard DeAngelo Russell) clearly gets hit in the face on a drive,” he said. “What the (expletive) do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go (like that)? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
In announcing the ruling over the arena’s public address system, crew chief Scott Foster said the contact by Denver’s Michael Porter Jr. was “marginal” and the call would be reversed.
At the time, the Lakers led 79-69 with 39.5 seconds remaining in the third quarter. However, the Nuggets rallied and eventually won the game 101-99 on Jamal Murray’s jumper as time expired.
“It makes no sense to me,” James said. “It bothers me. … And then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game, too. Like, what are we doing?”
And with that, he put down the microphone and left the interview room.
