Fear not, Cleveland Cavaliers fans.
LeBron James and Tristan Thompson are cool.
The duo got into a spat, caught on camera, centered around defense on Paul George, during the Cavaliers’ Sunday afternoon victory over the Indiana Pacers. Though the incident didn’t look great at the time—Thompson appeared angrier than James by the end of it—the two didn’t make a thing of it.
From ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst:
LeBron James apologized to teammate Tristan Thompson after yelling at him in a huddle during the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 135-130 double-overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
James appeared to be upset about defensive coverages on Paul George, who scored 16 consecutive Pacers points at one point in overtime and finished with 43 points. James, who had 41 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists, was George’s primary defender, but the Pacers were running plays that forced Thompson to switch to George. …
“I have to do a better job of not showing up my teammates out on the floor. I had the right intentions in my mind, but I had the wrong intentions come out of my mouth,” James told Fox Sports Ohio on the court after the game ended. “I take full responsibility for that as the leader of the team. So I got to be a lot better at that and be able to keep that in-house in the locker room and when we’re watching film.” …
“We’re family. Little miscommunication in the huddle. Move forward. Move forward. We’re family. Got each other’s back always. Move forward,” Thompson said. “Not going to get into (the reasons), just miscommunication, like I said. Move forward. It is what it is. Got the win.”
This would probably be a bigger deal—a much bigger deal–if the Cavaliers fell to a Pacers squad that is struggling more than them. But they didn’t. They pulled out a win, in double-overtime, to remain a half-game back of the Boston Celtics for first place in the Eastern Conference.
Even if the Cavaliers had lost, this probably would have been a short-lived feud. James and Thompson share an agent, and the former has always been one of the latter’s most outspoken supporters.
Frankly, spit happens in the heat of the moment, in the throes of competition. This game had playoff-seeding implications for the Cavaliers, and they’re only now starting to emerge from what was, by their standards, a horrifying stretch of basketball. These lover’s quarrels are seldom permanent, and they rarely carry any lingering repercussions, particularly when they take place between two teammates as ostensibly close as Thompson and James.
