The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a 22-point loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday, giving the Celtics the season sweep in the NBA's most illustrious rivalry. After the loss, Lakers star forward LeBron James provided his thoughts on the game and other topics, including his relationship with Celtics star Jaylen Brown. 

James speculated that Brown is drawing motivation from outside noise regarding the Celtics having a difficult season without Jayson Tatum and the loss of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.  

As the No. 1 option on his team, Brown is putting up career-high numbers in points per game (29.2), rebounds (7.0), and assists (4.9) through 51 games played. So far, Boston possesses the second seed in the Eastern Conference with a 37-19 record. In the win over the Lakers, he scored 32 points while grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out seven assists to go along with three steals. 

James also touched on a more personal topic regarding Brown’s previous comments toward James’ son, Lakers guard Bronny James. 

“Our relationship has been pretty respectful,” James said. “Besides the shit he said about Bronny at Summer League, but other than that, yeah, we've been all right.” 

During the 2024 NBA Summer League, James was competing in Las Vegas at a game where Brown was courtside with Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese and Kysre Gondrezick. During the game, Brown could be seen having an exchange with Reese and Gondrezick in which he seemed to have said “I don’t think Bronny is a pro.” 

Further speculation indicates that Brown made additional comments saying that James would end up playing for the Lakers because of his name. After LeBron’s initial comments, reporters asked if he would ever get past what was said. 

“We'll be all right,” James repeated multiple times. “I think he went on social media and said something about it. It's all good; Bronny got a long way to go, but that's another story.” 

James also endorsed Brown for MVP candidacy and questioned why Brown is not in the conversation as much as some other players in the league. At the All-Star break, NBA.com released its list of 15 players in the running for the prestigious award. 

At the top of the list was Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Second on the list was Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic. No. 3 was Lakers guard Luka Doncic, No. 4 belonged to Cade Cunningham, the Detroit Pistons’ star guard, and No. 5 belonged to San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama. Brown was listed at No. 6. 

James reached 43,000 career points in the loss, and his 20-point efforts was not enough to slow down the Celtics given the margin of defeat the Lakers suffered. He applauded Boston’s defense and timely shot making in the loss. James also made it clear that the Lakers never made a significant run to get themselves back in the game. 

The Lakers will host the Orlando Magic on Tuesday before road matchups against the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors to end the month.