Lakers: LeBron James, Jayson Tatum Get Into Instagram Exchange Over Foul Non-Call
Los Angeles Lakers All-Star power forward LeBron James appears to still be bitter over an uncalled foul from Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum in the finishing seconds of Saturday's 125-121 defeat against the Boston Celtics. Immediately after the foul, James protested the non-call. Following the matchup, he chastised the game's referees.
Attendant crew chief Eric Lewis conceded almost immediately after the game that the refs were wrong to not call a foul that night. On Sunday, the league released its Last Two Minute Report on the game, which confirmed that there had been enough contact for the moment to be considered a foul.
Last night, King James took to his Instagram Stories to again voice his frustration about the non-call... and Tatum offered up a sort of plausible deniability retort.
As you see in the above slides, captured by Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, it was a two-pronged exchange.
James showed an angle of the play from beneath the basket (incidentally, right behind a referee who could certainly have seen the foul), where Tatum clearly hits his arm. Beneath it, he wrote, "Good block @jaytatum0," along with a variety of perturbed-looking emojis.
In response, Tatum added a few chuckling emojis of his own, while adding, "last night was [a] blur... good game champ," followed by a crossed-fingers emoji and one of two hands shaking each other.