"Stat-padding to try to secure his G.O.A.T. status" - Jason Whitlock dubs NBA "soft" after LeBron James plays through apparent injury

LeBron James has come under scrutiny for "stat padding." Columnist Jason Whitlock went off on the NBA for James being "soft" and highlighted how he has been playing through injury to get his numbers up.

On his 'Fearless' showm the former ESPN and Fox journalist shared a video of LeBron walking during a game doing nothing. Whitlock said that James was suffering from an apparent knee injury and that his left knee wasn't 'bending.'

Sharing the snippet from his show on X (formerly Twitter), Whitlock said that James could walk around on the court due to the NBA becoming "soft." Captioning the post, he wrote:

"In my view, LeBron is playing with one good leg. He’s clearly not healthy. He’s stat-padding to try to secure his G.O.A.T. status. He shouldn’t even be able to do this, but the league has gone so soft that a 40-year-old man with one good leg can be effective offensively."

The former Ball State University linebacker also went in on the current NBA crop, as he reckons players stand on the 3-point line and hardly do any defending:

"The effort level is so low that you can actually get away with and put up numbers offensively all in one leg, that's how soft the league is.

"If this were 1988 on one leg, they'd be like 'LeBron you can't help us out here, you will get killed out here, you will kill us on both ends.... But in this soft league where there is very little defense and guys just standing around the three-point line, he can get away with this" Whitlock expressed.

---

LeBron James passes Kyle Korver in all-time 3 PM chart

Despite Jason Whitlock's claims, LeBron James, on Wednesday, reached another milestone. He scored 29 points during his team's defeat to the Miami Heat, sinking a 3 to climb to seventh in the NBA's all-time 3 PM list, passing Kyle Korver.

Korver responded to James' achievement via a text to TNT's Jared Greenberg:

"Took you long enough" Korver texted according to Jared Greenberg.

Scoring his 2,450th 3-pointer, LeBron James saw his special night marred by a 41-point loss to the Heat as the Lakers dropped to 12-10 in the West.