Yes I did. I have also watched hundreads of Lebrons games so I base my opinion on how the refs treat him on the whole sample size rather than one game. And to be clear I'm talking about offense. On defense he gets the same benefit of the doubt as any stars get. I have also watched so many Kings games through these years that I can say we are not a favourable whistle away from being competitive
Then I'm sure you can appreciate that the comments I made were in reference to last night's game (and to a lesser extent the previous 3 Lakers/Kings matchups this season), not the 19 year career of Lebron James or the legacy of the Lakers. I'm not composing a career retrospective here I just felt a number of calls were blatantly wrong and it's hard not to feel like Lebron being a Hall of Fame player and the Kings being a loser franchise had something to do with that. Basically I feel like I woke up from a hangover and you're now asking me to defend the thesis I composed last night in soliloquy over six pints of beer and some crummy overpriced nachos. Can't we just let it go?
Generally speaking, I'm cool with Lebron. He's had his moments of media related stupidity but on the court he plays for his teammates and he's still pretty fun to watch if you ignore the fact that he's wearing a Lakers jersey. There's really just two plays that bothered me last night. On the first play of the game Lebron stuck his elbow out and connected with Bagley's face and got a trip to the free throw line for it. That contributed to Bagley getting taken out of the game after just 5 minutes. The play in the 4th when Lebron and I believe Monk both fouled him on the arm trying to strip the ball and the refs let it go as a no call resulted in Gentry calling a TO and pulling Bagley from the remainder of the game. I'm not a Bagley booster or anything but he was playing pretty well and those blown calls got his coach to remove him from the game. That kind of thing irks me.
Actually, here's one more. Bagley took a charge on Lebron early in the game but he was ever so slightly moving his hips to the right as he did it so it was a blocking foul. Then Lebron takes a charge 10 or 15 minutes later which was almost identical but he planted his feet and sold it better. It's the same play. That's one of my least favorite calls in basketball. If someone barrels into you out of control it's a charge. Jumping in front of a ballhandler and falling over should always be a block even if you get your feet set. You're asking the refs to bail you out instead of making a play on the ball. I was fine with the call on Bagley, but then Lebron made essentially the same play and got rewarded by forcing a turnover. Announcers will call that veteran savvy but I just think it's unfortunate that ref baiting is still a part of the game.
That's it, that's all I've got. Play on.