“What am I now?” – LeBron James On Praising Dalton Knecht’s Play During His Time At Tennessee

LeBron James is not holding back when expressing his thoughts on Dalton Knecht falling to the Lakers in the draft. In a brief interview, LeBron addressed the criticism he received for praising Knecht’s play and took a jab at the 16 teams that passed on him. “Everybody on the Internet called me a liar all the time. What am I now?” LeBron remarked. He feels vindicated now that Knecht is a part of the Lakers organization. After reporters asked James about the Lakers front office “finding” Knecht in the 2024 NBA draft at No. 17 overall, LeBron made it clear that he felt it was more a case of the teams picking ahead of the Lakers screwing up than L.A. finding a diamond in the rough: “They didn’t ‘find’ DK,” James said. “The other 16 teams f–ked it up. Did anybody watch him? S–t. They just didn’t f–k it up. You don’t ‘find’ a SEC Player of the Year.” As part of his 37 points, Knecht set the single-game NBA rookie record for three-pointers made with nine, including going 6-for-6 in the third quarter. Knecht himself admitted to reporters that he was “a little bit” surprised he fell to No....