LeBron James draws technical foul for sitting on bench without sub (Video)

LeBron James was called for a technical foul after he took himself out of the game with no sub at the scorer’s table

The Cleveland Cavaliers accrued a 15-point lead going into halftime against the Atlanta Hawks and only increased their lead at the start of the third quarter, going on a 15-4 run to start the period. Up 26 points, it’s not hard to imagine that LeBron James and company checked out mentally just a bit. LeBron may have checked out a little too much, though.

Up 72-46, the Cavaliers lost possession on the offensive end thinks to a loose ball going out off of James. LeBron wasn’t happy with this, so he promptly walked straight to his seat on the bench. The problem, however, was that there was no substitute for him at the scorer’s table and the Hawks inbounded the ball quickly after the loss of possession. This all resulted in a technical foul:

I have no idea what James was thinking there; the only thing that makes remote sense is that he thought Atlanta wouldn’t be able to inbound the ball as quickly as they did. Otherwise, he basically just gave up on the game and gave up a technical foul in the process.

Ultimately, that technical didn’t matter in the context of the game. The Hawks came back a bit, but the Cavs still got the victory, 109-97. Even then, it’s a bit of a curious play from the leader of Cleveland to just quit on a play like that.