Los Angeles Lakers first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino poked fun at superstar LeBron James over a social media post that went viral the night of the NBA Draft.
The Los Angeles Lakers came off a remarkable 2022-23 season. After getting written off earlier in the year, the Lakers made a run to the Western Conference Finals as the seventh-seed but were swept by the eventual NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets. They have an important offseason ahead of them, where they have to retain talent and add enough pieces to make another deep run in the playoffs, this time with the hope to return to the NBA Finals.
To kick off their offseason, the Lakers used their No. 17 overall pick on Indiana guard Jalen Hood-Schifino on the night of the NBA Draft. During the event, a social media post went viral, noting that the Hood-Schfinio was just seven days old when his new teammate, LeBron James, was selected first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003.
Hood-Schifino was made aware of this post when speaking with reporters, and responded by saying, "Dang, LeBron's old!" His quote comes courtesy of ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
Lakers: Jalen Hood-Schifino responds to viral post about LeBron James' age
Just for the record, no, Hood-Schifino didn't take a page out of Dillon Brooks' playbook. After his quote went viral, Hood-Schfino posted a message on his Instagram story which read, "I would never disrespect LeBron. He's one of the best players to ever play this game and I'm blessed to be able to play alongside him! If anything I'm giving him praise for what he's doing at his age."
Hood-Schifino played one season with the Hoosiers under former NBA head coach Mike Woodson. In 32 games played last season, Hood-Schifino averaged 13.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists, while shooting 41.7 percent from the field. Hood-Schifino was named Big 10 Freshman of the Year and earned Big Ten All-Freshman team and Second-Team All-Big Ten honors.
After one season at Indiana, Hood-Schifino will play on the Lakers alongside James and Anthony Davis. It will remain to be seen who the Lakers will be able to retain regarding Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Lonnie Walker.
While his quote went viral, Hood-Schifino wanted to let the world know that he meant no disrespect to James about his age.
