Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James has reacted angrily after twice catching media members taking photographs of him in the locker room.
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The issue has recently been brought to the forefront by NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, who questioned and criticised the media’s use of locker-room availability.
NBA players have been available to give post-game interviews in the locker room for years, but the fear was that there were people in there without the appropriate credentials and so were merely creating a scrum in what is for the most part the players’ private space.
James’ issue will certainly bring it back into the spotlight as Cleveland.com reports that he was sat in his locker stall with his head down on his phone with nothing but a towel on around his waist.
While he wasn’t quite ready to speak to the media, they waited away from him while some even interviewed players that were ready and prepared to talk to them.
However, the 30-year-old was left irritated when he noticed that one of the media members was taking a picture of him.
“James looked up with a baffled expression plastered on his face and signalled over a team official. Those who saw how his demeanour abruptly changed were curious to what had occurred,” the report claimed.
“It turned out that James did the equivalent of a no-look pass. Even though his head was lowered, using his peripheral vision, he some somehow managed to catch one of the media delegates taking a picture of him while he was semi-bare.
“That’s not cool, man,” James said. “I don’t miss anything.”
“This person denied taking the photo and was able to manipulate his phone gallery in such a way that buried the most recent pictures taken.”
It also happened the very next night following Cleveland’s loss to Miami, with team officials removing media members from the scrum after they were seen taking pictures.
There are two sides to this argument, in that on the second occasion James was actually addressing the media and so should have gotten ready beforehand. However, this is another case to use as an argument to remove reporters from the locker room and wait until the players are ready for the post-game press conference.
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