LeBron James heard Dillon Brooks call him old, but he didn’t necessarily want to dignify it with a response.
With the Lakers and Grizzlies tied at 1-1 in their best-of-seven series in the first round of the NBA playoffs, James spoke to reporters after practice Friday and was repeatedly asked about what Brooks had said about him earlier this week.
“I’m not here for the bulls–t,” James said, according to ESPN. “I’m ready to play and that’s it.”
The Grizzlies defeated the Lakers 103-93 in Game 2; James had 28 points but he was 1-8 from 3-point range and the Lakers were outscored by 17 points while he was in the game.
After the contest, Brooks brashly chided his Lakers foe.
“I don’t care — he’s old. You know what I mean?” Brooks asked on Wednesday. “I was waiting for that. I was expecting him to do that Game 4, Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. He should have been saying that earlier on. But I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40.”
The Grizzlies played Game 2 without superstar Ja Morant, who re-aggravated a hand injury in Game 1 when he fell awkwardly after getting called for a charge on Lakers big man Anthony Davis.
Rui Hachimura, a forward that the Lakers acquired from the Wizards mid-season, also addressed Brooks’ comments.
“I heard about it,” Hachimura told reporters on Friday. “I’m not really into social media, but I heard about it. Honestly, that’s all they can do. They’re a young team. They just want to talk. We just don’t really care. We’re going to play our game and we’re trying to win the games.”
The Lakers are four-and-a-half-point home favorites against the Grizzlies in Saturday night’s Game 3.