LeBron James’ cramps have been discussed almost non-stop since last night, with plenty of people offering smart, balanced takes, but too many giving dumb, hot sports takes and making terrible jokes about it.
More from LeBron James
- LeBron James, Giannis, Damian Lillard all want that Mbappé money
- We finally have the worst LeBron James take of all time, and it’s glorious
- Bruce Brown takes shot at Lakers, LeBron James after cashing in
- LeBron James confirms the obvious about retirement in fiery ESPYs speech
- The new NBA flopping rules explained
One person who has done something smart in relation to the cramps, was Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk, who reached out to an actual doctor to discuss the cramping problem LeBron suffered from. Check out some of his responses below.
"Q: Eighteen players appeared in Game 1. LeBron was the only one to leave with cramps. Why was that, and what does that say about him?A: It doesn’t say anything about him. It’s just the way it happened.That’s not a medical question. That’s a philosophic question. Why do some people get sick and other people don’t? It just happened to him this time. So, if you’re ever on a plane and someone is sick and sneezes, a couple passengers are going to get sick in a couple days and a couple aren’t. Why those two instead of someone else?Maybe that means he was working harder than someone else on the field. Maybe he was stressing his body more because he was more energetic and expended more energy and worked his muscles harder."
Wait, but I thought it’s a sign of his weakness? You mean it’s just something that happens sometimes? Huh.
"Q: One LeBron left the game, could he or the Heat have done something differently to get him back on the court?A: There’s really not enough time in that last four or five minutes of the game to get him better. It’s the equivalent of having an NFL player going in at halftime and getting IV fluids and getting back out there the second half.What happens is the muscles become inflamed, and they go into spasm. It’s usually the large muscles that go into spasm, so a runner or basketball player, though they use their upper body, it’s going to be their legs and their quads and their hamstrings that get tight – their major jumping muscles.So, you not only have to get the muscles stretched out and decrease the inflammation, but you also have to replace the fluids. If he’s not vomiting, he can take the fluids in by mouth, but a lot of times, if you want an elite athlete back quickly, you probably have to do IV fluids."
Oh, so he couldn’t have just “played through it?” Huh. Weird again.
Unfortunately people will still say dumb things about LeBron because people love to say dumb things about LeBron. All we can hope to do is educate them.