Sportdsbooks Offering 100-1 Odds on LeBron James Getting Hurt Celebrating During a Bronny James Jr. Game
- LeBron James has been criticized for celebrating excessively at his son’s AAU games
- In one instance, his sneaker came off of his foot while celebrating
- Vegas has placed odds on whether LeBron James will injure himself while celebrating
You may have heard about the recent controversy regarding LeBron James.
No, he didn’t orchestrate another “Decision.” No, he didn’t even promise that he and Anthony Davis would bring the Lakers four, five or six championships.
This time the controversy surrounds James’s enthusiasm during his son’s AAU basketball games.
Odds LeBron James Sustains Injury After Celebrating Team’s Dunk During One of LeBron “Bronny” James Jr. Games?
| Result | Odds |
|---|---|
| Yes | +10000 |
*Odds taken August 1, 2019
Recently, while attending one of his son Bronny’s AAU games in Las Vegas, LeBron was his effervescent self. He performed dunk contest style dunks in the kids’ lay up line, chest-bumped team members during timeouts and after one of his son’s teammates completed a spectacular alley-oop, he literally came out of his shoes while his celebration carried him onto the court, stopping play briefly.
LeBron celebrated too hard and lost his damn shoe 😂😂😂 @KingJames @TipHoops pic.twitter.com/F6yJ15wGKX
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 28, 2019
The backlash has been surprising, or maybe not, considering the times.
The best thing to come out of this hub bub is that Vegas has posted odds on whether LeBron will actually injure himself during one of his epic AAU celebrations.
At 100-1 odds, it is hard to argue putting a couple dollars of your disposable income down on the rail thin chance that James hurts himself in this fashion, just for fun. But, that doesn’t mean it’s a smart bet.
LeBron James is perhaps the best conditioned athlete ever. Him dunking at 30% effort in the lay up line or dancing on the sidelines like he does in his Instagram Stories is highly unlikely to result in injury.
LeBron is out here DUNKING DURING WARM UPS!! Oh snap!! @KingJames @TipHoops pic.twitter.com/9YH4cPSWaL
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 27, 2019
Also, even in the minuscule chance that James does injure himself in celebration, what are the chances we would know about it? He and his team are surely smart enough to attribute any injury to his on-court activities in order to avoid more controversy as well as any team contract or insurance issues.
"If this was Melo Ball and LaVar started doing this, we'd go crazy. … This is Jr.'s time, his teammates time to shine. I just wish he wouldn't do it. You don't need no recognition at no AAU game. … I'm LeBron James 98.72% of the time but [not] this time." — @ShannonSharpe pic.twitter.com/Yb75Zd21wO
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) July 29, 2019
The overall point, however, is that we in the media and the fans are exerting more energy talking and writing about this than James is dunking and dancing. For a guy that is rarely hurt during world-class competition, we should have the utmost confidence that he will not hurt himself during his leisure time.
There is no value in betting the yes here.
Jamal Murphy is a sportswriter, attorney and Executive Producer/Co-Host of the Bill Rhoden On Sports podcast. Jamal has covered the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, college basketball, tennis, and boxing. He has previously written for CBS Local Sports and USAToday.com, among others.
