Courtside video reveals what LeBron James said to Ime Udoka in Lakers-Rockets
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers hosted Dillon Brooks and the Houston Rockets on Saturday night and made relatively quick work of their young Western Conference counterparts. A huge second quarter propelled the Lakers into a 16-point halftime lead that was never relinquished in the second half.
Typically in these matchups, the headlines are around LeBron James and Brooks and their newfound rivalry. Brooks infamously poked the bear during last year's playoffs (and was made to look foolish as a result) and has continued his verbal tirade against LeBron this season (without actually backing it up).
That was not the case in Saturday night's game though. Part of the reason was because Brooks was a nonfactor; but it mostly had to do with his head coach, Ime Udoka, taking away the smack-talking spotlight.
Udoka was ejected from the game after an altercation with LeBron James that landed both men a technical. As soon as it happened fans were curious about what was said that was bad enough for both men to get a technical and for Udoka to be ejected. Well, it is not quite perfect, but a new courtside video has emerged where fans can somewhat decipher what was said (warning: NSFW language).
New video shows what LeBron James said to Ime Udoka during Lakers-Rockets
Based on what LeBron says in this clip, it appears that Udoka called him an expletive that LeBron was not a fan of. The NBA's all-time leading scorer told Udoka not to use that word "so loosely", and that "we all grown men".
It is unclear what Udoka said in response to LeBron as that is what ultimately got him the technical. Based on the fact that the referee thought it was harsh enough to earn the foul, he probably did not listen to LeBron and follow his wishes.
LeBron was asked about the interaction after the game and kept it confidential, saying that the two were talking about Thanksgiving. That obviously was not the case. Udoka, meanwhile, was seemingly frustrated with the loss saying after the game that his team got punked by a team that "not known" for punking people. Ouch.
At the end of the day, the Lakers are 2-1 against the Rockets this season and have four more wins than Houston with the same number of losses. After this interaction between LeBron and Udoka, fans cannot wait for the last game between these two teams on January 29.