LeBron James fires back at Celtics announcers after dig at him and Lakers

"Eat some breakfast first!"

LeBron James didn’t seem to appreciate the discussion Celtics announcers Drew Carter and Brian Scalabrine had about Russell Westbrook and his Lakers tenure during Friday’s preseason game against the Nuggets.

The Lakers superstar responded to a clip of the Celtics’ broadcasters calling out James for Los Angeles’ perceived treatment of Westbrook in a social media post on Saturday.

“Took a trip all the way to Abu Dhabi to be on my…..Eat some breakfast first! Anyways Brodie (Westbrook) a LEGEND 🫡,” James wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, making mention of where the Celtics-Nuggets game was being played.

After Denver’s newly acquired guard made his third 3-pointer of the game in the third quarter of Friday’s game, Scalabrine turned the discussion on NBC Sports Boston’s broadcast to Westbrook. He sympathized with Westbrook over how his 1.5-year-long stint with the Lakers went while Carter seemingly pointed at James as the reason why the guard received a great deal of scorn during his tenure with the team.

“I tell you what, I’m rooting for him to make like nine 3s against the Lakers because he got a lot of heat for that whole thing so I’m kind of hoping he can make a lot of 3s against them,” Scalabrine began.

“You’re telling me one of LeBron’s teammates became a scapegoat out of nowhere?” Carter asked with a sarcastic tone.

“Crazy, right?” Scalabrine responded.

The Lakers traded for Westbrook in the 2021 offseason, acquiring him in a trade with the Wizards where they gave up three rotational players less than a calendar year after they won a title. However, the team fell down the standings during his tenure, missing the postseason in 2021-22. Westbrook averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game while shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 29.8 percent from deep that season.

As the Lakers were looking at the possibility of missing the postseason again in 2022-23, they traded Westbrook ahead of the deadline for a few rotational pieces (D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley). They also gave up a first-round pick so they could get rid of Westbrook, who had averaged 15.9 points, 7.5 assists, and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting 41.7 percent and 29.6 percent from the field when he was with the Lakers that season.

The second Westbrook trade wound up paying dividends for the Lakers. They went 18-9 after trading Westbrook to make the postseason, where they made a run to the Western Conference finals. Los Angeles made the postseason again in 2024, winning the play-in game to earn the No. 7 seed before falling to the Nuggets in the first round.

Westbrook, meanwhile, was bought out after the trade to the Jazz and helped the Clippers make the postseason in 2023 and 2024. The Clippers traded Westbrook back to the Jazz again over the offseason, but he was bought out for a second time, allowing him to sign with the Nuggets.

As for James, he’s had a longstanding rivalry with the Celtics. Saturday’s social media action is probably one of the lesser memorable moments in that rivalry, though. James and the Celtics have met in the postseason seven times, with the NBA great winning five of those matchups.