Dallas Basketball

Los Angeles Lakers Star LeBron James Reacts to Dallas Mavs Coach Media Rant: 'Love Jason Kidd ... He Was RIGHT!'

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd tore into ESPN reporter Tim MacMahon after Tuesday night's game, and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has now chimed in to support his former assistant coach.

Dalton Trigg

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Last season, when things weren't going so well for the Dallas Mavericks following their trade for star point guard Kyrie Irving, some media members took that as an opportunity to push a narrative that Irving and Luka Doncic weren't going to be able to work together.

Whether such criticism was warranted or not at the time, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd hasn't forgotten about that negativity, and after Dallas' win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, he tore into ESPN's Tim MacMahon, urging him, and all media members who tend to dwell on negativity, to "write some positive (bleep)."

Many have rallied behind Kidd's rant on social media, agreeing with his sentiment, including Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who had Kidd as an assistant coach during L.A.'s 2020 title run.

Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
Dallas Mavs coach Jason Kidd and Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James embrace / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

"For J to curse you know he wasn't happy at all! I don't think I ever heard him curse. I mean from competing vs him, teamming up with him and playing for him. Never! He was HOT and quite frankly RIGHT!! Love J Kidd!," James tweeted.

Although Kidd got the best of James during his playing days when the Mavs defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals, the two have formed a tight bond from their time playing together for Team USA, and then also from Kidd's time with the Lakers.

Kidd also hinted at media members not highlighting more of the good things players like Irving do off the court as well. James won a title with Irving in 2016 when they were teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers, which gives him yet another reason to back up Kidd in this particular situation.

Given the intertwining relationships between Kidd, James, Irving and Doncic, paired with the fact that the Mavs have a higher ceiling than the Lakers do for the immediate future, it's easy to understand why Irving reportedly reached out to James over the summer to gauge his interest in potentially coming to Dallas.

NBA Rumor: Kyrie Irving Recruiting LeBron James to Join Luka Doncic's Mavs

Many L.A. media members have continuously tried to push the Kyrie-to-Lakers narrative, but with Irving and Doncic locked into long-term contacts while currently experiencing more success than the Lakers have this season, one has to wonder what could happen next summer, when James could hit the unrestricted free-agency market for the fourth time in his career with a very attractive situation in Dallas staring at him.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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