I’ll be one of the first people to admit that LeBron James deserves more credit than some people are willing to give him. While he’s not better than Michael Jordan (and it’s not particularly close), he’s still a phenomenal basketball player and undeniably a guy who knows how to win. But it makes his legacy just that much harder to appreciate when he’s just outright lying.

After losing to the KD-less Nets thanks to a valiant effort by James Harden and Patty Mills, LeBron dished a little bit on how nobody was hunting sympathy with their records, citing that everyone’s had people out. But he also made it clear that the two teams with the best record in the league haven’t lost too many people to Covid protocols.

“Everybody - besides, I think Golden State and Phoenix - everybody has guys out.” LeBron said in his postgame presser, sparking a viral reaction from fans of the Warriors and just hoops in general.

Usually there’s a way to justify this comment by virtue of calling it misinterpreted, but this is straight up a lie. The Warriors lost Jordan Poole 5 whole games ago. Andrew Wiggins was ruled out 3 games ago, and Damion Lee out 3 games ago. Draymond Green was just entered into the protocols. The Warriors have been battling without Andre Iguodala, who has been limited in his playing time in order to preserve his aging athleticism, in several contests this season.

Oh, and they’ve also been without starting shooting guard Klay Thompson for two seasons. Can’t forget about the only player on their roster taller than 6’9 as well in James Wiseman.

Despite all of this, the Warriors beat a mostly-healthy Suns team that was missing only two late-rotation guys in Frank Kaminsky and Dario Saric, two guys who the Suns broadcast crew would love to make you think move the needle at all for Phoenix to be the better team. With them missing no starters, however, and the Warriors missing several, they still pulled out the Christmas day victory.

Back to LeBron’s comments, we’ve seen this before. An underperforming team with a lineup their star player basically constructed himself is, well, underperforming for reasons that have nothing to do with health and safety. That star player goes on the record and cites the two teams with the best records in the league as the only healthy teams. It’s a cop-out, an excuse, blatant misinformation, you name it. And it makes it a lot harder to have respect for James when he does something like this.

The only team in a better position to win it all, according to both Vegas odds and common sense, is the Brooklyn Nets at theoretical full strength. Golden State matches up pretty well with them, having seen plenty of Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant in recent playoffs and even as a teammate in KD’s case. The Nets are a subpar defensive team, something the Dubs can take advantage of. There’s a worse matchup for the Warriors in the form of the Milwaukee Bucks, but given their path to the Finals, a meeting would be unlikely.

The Lakers, on the other hand, would be lucky to make it out of the first round unless they do a mid-season fire sale and get the guys who will actually help them win. They can’t do this dance of LeBron blaming Covid protocols for crappy roster construction that he had a say in and poor play from key guys like Anthony Davis. The Lakers may actually be the worst superteam to ever play by pure virtue of how poorly these guys fit together.

Instead of taking shots across the bow that are legitimate lies at the team with the best record in the league, it may be time for LeBron to take a look at his own team’s performance. Do I think the Lakers would be really good at any point with their current roster? We’ve seen flashes when everything clicks, but it’s tough to imagine a team that is neither good defensively nor particularly good at shooting finding success into the playoffs.

(Photo credit: National Basketball Association)